Cathy Napier

Professional Interests:

Catherine (Cathy) Napier received her Bachelor’s degree from Dallas Baptist University in Dallas, Texas and her Master’s degree in Counseling from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Cathy attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey for her post-graduate studies in addiction. She was licensed as a Mental Health Counselor in the State of Texas and in the State of New Mexico. 

Experience and Education:

Cathy has worked in major psychiatric hospitals in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where she founded the Addiction Program within the Department of Psychiatry and served as director. Cathy was called to direct the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program under the administration of Governor Bill Richardson in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The TANF Program helped women and men who had barriers that prevented them from working or from getting an education. Several of the programs were out-sourced to Catholic charities, and became successful in a state that had little-to-no access for treatment. Upon completion of her contract at New Mexico State, she went to work for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) where she was the Employee Assistance Manager of Behavioral Health for Arizona, New Mexico, Needles, California, and El Paso, Texas. She retired from the BNSF in 2014. After retirement, she continued working as a consultant in Kentucky with the Opioid crisis, helping to place those who were sex trafficked into facilities for treatment. Cathy is the author and co-author of various books dealing with issues of mental illness, addiction, trauma, and marriage/family.  Her book, Operation Daughters Addicted, was taught at the well-known Sierra Tucson treatment facility in Tucson, Arizona where she worked part-time teaching the book to clients with eating disorders. Operation Daughters Addicted won several awards in the London Book Festival, the Paris Book Festival, and was one of the books mentioned by the New York Times as a Book of the Times. Cathy’s final project was to accept the call from Valleydale Church to open a counseling center that would offer a combination of clinically informed and biblically sound counseling for the community. In partnership with Valleydale Church, Cathy helped found and open Valleydale Counseling Center in May 2025. She continues to be an advocate for the center, where she offers consultation.