D Daneshpour, Manijeh Christi R. McGeorge North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA Introduction Manijeh Daneshpour, PhD, LMFT, is a professor and system-wide director of the Alliant Interna- tional University Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) programs. With more than 22 years of academic, research, and clinical experience, Dr. Daneshpour is a recognized leader in multi- culturally sensitive therapy, third-wave feminism, and the foremost expert on family therapy with Muslim families. Career Manijeh Daneshpour was born in Tehran, Iran, to a philosophy professor father and education minded, stay-at-home mother. She has two sisters and one brother. Her sisters continue to reside in Iran pursuing professional careers, while her brother lives in Italy. Dr. Daneshpour began her undergraduate studies in Tehran. In 1984, she made the decision to come to the United States (USA) to continue her education, intending to return to Iran to begin her academic career. Dr. Daneshpour began her undergraduate stud- ies in the USA in 1985 at Weber State University and later transferred to the University of Utah where she graduated with a bachelor’ s degree in child and family development. In 1992, still at the University of Utah, Dr. Daneshpour completed a master ’ s degree in family ecology. She then moved to the University of Minnesota where she received her doctorate in family social science, with an emphasis in MFT. Highlighting her per- severance and tenacity, Dr. Daneshpour was a single parent for both her master ’ s and doctoral studies as her husband returned to Iran for a brief visit to check on an ailing parent, and the US government would not allow him to return to the USA for 9 years despite his repeated attempts to get a visa. Dr. Daneshpour planned to return to Iran; how- ever, a series of events surrounding her disserta- tion research led her to the realization that while she could have a comfortable life back home in Tehran, she had the opportunity to create signifi- cant change in the USA by challenging stereo- types about Middle Eastern individuals and relationships. Thus, she began working exten- sively as an outpatient family therapist serving a diverse population. She was then hired as the coordinator of the MFT Program at St. Mary’ s University of Minnesota. After a year of develop- ing and teaching courses to postmaster’ s students, Dr. Daneshpour moved to St. Cloud State Univer- sity where she was the MFT program director for 13 years. While at St. Cloud State University, she rose through the ranks and became a tenured, full professor and, in 2011, the chair of the © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 J. L. Lebow et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8