She spends her mornings as a speech therapist, her afternoons as a professor and her nights as a rock star.

Molly Countermine is not the average professor.

With her curly hair and tall, slim frame, she sings and plays the piano for her Maxwell Strait Band fans as easily as she lectures to students in her classroom.

"Molly is a great performer. She really enjoys it and that's the key," said Scott Mangene, acoustic guitarist for the band. "She has a very busy life but she really enjoys it all."

Countermine values the balance of her everyday routine.

"Music fulfills me and feeds [my energy]," she said. "Anybody that knows me knows that I don't lead three separate lives; it is just who I am."

When her nightly gig is over, there isn't much time to go out with her fans before she has to get up in the morning and go to work.

The 33-year-old professor for the health and human development department uses her experience in the field as examples for her lectures.

During graduate school at Auburn University, she began working in a child development clinic as a key player in a team evaluating children with disabilities.

"I worked with a team to evaluate children and was able to make group decisions about what services they needed," Countermine said. "What I started to realize was that there is a whole approach to looking at a kid and not just a part, the part that you specialize in."

After her experience in the clinic, she decided to return to State College for her doctorate in child psychology.

"Part of me missed school," she said. "I love that kind of lifestyle, where you're allowed to be an explorer of your own life."

While at Penn State, she realized she enjoyed teaching and did not need to have a doctorate program to do so.

"Molly is really passionate about what she teaches," said Rebecca Morgan, one of her graduate teaching assistants. "She really wants everyone to use what they learn for their future."

Another passion Countermine has is animals. She has rescued 11 dogs over the past two years and is trying to find a permanent home for a black lab she calls Annie, who she rescued last week.

"I just started being unable to stand by when a dog was being neglected or abused, and it's hard because they are a lot like children, because there aren't a lot of rules about what you can and can't do to them," she said. "It's the most rewarding thing in making another's soul better, whether it's an animal's soul or a human's soul."

Countermine has two dogs of her own and considers them part of her family. After completing her daily routine, she retreats to the woods with her husband, René Witzke, bassist in the Maxwell Strait Band, and their dogs before jumping on stage together.

"After I get home from teaching, my husband and I take Max and Maggie for a run," Countermine said. "It keeps our heads clear and gets some energy out of the dogs."

Countermine and Witzke met through the band five years ago and married last October.

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