Breanne Hiivala Cahoy
Clinical Faculty
she/her
Areas of Study
Contact
Dr. Breanne Hiivala Cahoy (she/her) is a counseling faculty member based in Minnesota. She is a licensed professional counselor, a certified rehabilitation counselor, and a consultant specializing in ecowellness-based career development. Her previous roles included assistant director of career development at a large public university, career counselor at a mid-sized public university, employee assistance program (EAP) solutions coordinator, and sexual assault victims’ advocate within a university gender violence prevention program. In recent years, she has partnered with a wildlife biologist to develop workplace health and wellbeing programs for professionals in conservation, mental health, education, and the corporate sector.
Passionate about social justice, she was honored with the Women of Courage and Vision award by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women at Minnesota State University for team research on structural discrimination in hiring practices in higher education. As faculty advisor for a graduate student group, she led community-focused volunteer and fundraising initiatives, including drives for Laulima Giving Program (HI), LightShine Canine (Midwest), and the Tubman Center (MN), as well as a pollinator conservation project with Urban Roots (MN).
Bre loves traveling and being outdoors. When she’s not in the classroom, you’ll usually find her with her family enjoying a walk, a good book, or a game of fetch with their Labrador Retriever, Lemon.
Her primary research interests include work-life wellbeing and reciprocal nature based healing.
Cahoy, B., Doerr, M., & Park, C. (2025) [Unpublished manuscript]. Nurturing hope and resilience in climate aware career development. NCDA Career Developments. Spring 2025, https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/magazine.
Player, A., Fisher, R., & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. (2024). Navigating occupational hazards: Supporting helping provider health and wellbeing. In Stark, C. Professionals’ Guide to Trauma-Informed Decision-Making. Springer Nature.
Cahoy (Hiivala), B. & Park, C. (2024, Mar 8). Cultivating belonging, social interest, and planetary wellbeing in higher education: An Adlerian approach. [Conference session]. Minnesota College Personnel Association: A State Division of ACPA College Student Educators International (MNACPA) Annual Conference: Anti-racism, inclusion, and belonging in higher ed, virtual.
Cahoy (Hiivala), B., Goonetilleke, D., & Park, C. (2023, Oct 14). Andragogy in the Anthropocene: Bringing hope and climate awareness to counselor education. Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) Conference, Denver, CO.
Doerr, M., Cahoy (Hiivala), B., & Park, C. (2023, Sept 18). Nurturing trauma informed conservation communities [4-hour workshop]. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Ashland, WI.
Fisher, R., & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. (2023). Culture-sensitive psychotraumatology. In Dermer, S. B. & Abdullah, J. R. (Eds). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy (pp. 430-435). SAGE Publications.
Fisher, R., & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. (2023). Internalized racism and oppression. In Dermer, S. B. & Abdullah, J. R. (Eds). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy (pp. 845-850). SAGE Publications.
Judd, S., Mast, G., Oliver, S., Ralph, R., Shortell, O., Wright, S., & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. [Faculty advisor]. (2023, February). Exploring the relationship between discrimination and interoceptive awareness. Counselors for Social Justice (pp. 4-6). Spring.
Doerr, M. & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. (2023, February). Acknowledging trauma in the workplace. The Wildlife Professional, (pp. 50-55). Jan/Feb 2023, www.wildlife.org.
Boyle-Milroy, L., Manthe, B., & Cahoy (Hiivala), B. (2023, Mar 31). Integrating cultural humility and nonviolent communication strategies in conversations about the climate crisis [Conference session]. Minnesota College Personnel Association: A State Division of ACPA College Student Educators International (MNACPA) Annual Conference: Envisioning an inclusive and sustainable future in higher ed, Minneapolis, MN.