By Lou Corsaro for The Point, a publication of Point Park University (Summer 2026 edition)

There aren't many professional soccer players out there with doctoral degrees. In fact, there very likely is just one to have done it by the age of 24.

Josie Valeri came to Point Park in 2019 to play soccer and study psychology. By the time she left, she had put in five years on the women's soccer team -- the fifth was because of COVID -- and earned bachelor's degree in applied psychology in 2022, a master's degree in clinical community psychology in 2023 and a Ph.D. in critical psychology in 2025.

Currently, she plays in the Greek football system. She came to the country for the 2024-25 season to play for S.A. Mykonos, before transferring to W.F.C. Veria in January.

She puts her degrees to use writing in publications and is a member of the American Psychology Association Divisions 24 and 32. Her private LLC takes on private, in-person sessions wherever she's based, both in the U.S. and Greece. She also does online mental mentorship, which she calls "mental coaching."

"It's very nomadic," Valeri said. "During the season, I go over and play. In the offseason, I come to the states and carry out more mentorship and see family. And prepare for the next season."

Her journey to professional soccer began when she started playing club soccer outside of Point Park. She put herself out there for semipro opportunities and ended up in St. Catherines, Ontario, in Canada.

"After a while, I thought, do I really want to keep sending out hundreds of thousands of emails or get an agent?" she said, and found an agent who through a connection with a Point Park coach. "He sent me on a tryout to get to the next level and I tried out on the island of Mykonos."

She later found a Greek agent and then found the connection to transfer to Veria in northern Greece.

For now, she has no plans to stop playing professionally.

"My ultimate goal is to take it up into my 30s. I'll start to review it then," she said. "I want to keep up with the mentorship, keep up with the publications and research – the qualitative side of research."

Valeri cites her time at Point Park and with the Riverhounds Academy for helping keep her head above water.

"Relationships are a difficult thing to maintain. The ones who are meant to be around will stay around," she said. "The Riverhounds Academy always checks in and asks if I want to come and help out. On the psychology side, the mentors stay in contact. I don't ever feel a hesitation to reach out."

One of those people is Bob McInerney, a longtime professor of psychology at Point Park who was the chair of her dissertation, The Potential Value of Humor During Cross-Cultural Adjustment.

"Josie is an ethical and sincere person, quite affable, and was a pleasure to work with," he said. "She is one of a few students I've known that never procrastinates. As an undergrad, she took every class I offered, and I soon discovered she was brilliant."