COUNSELORSUMMER 2011

State of the Program As in many other program areas within the Curry School and many other counselor

education programs across the country, our program is in a period of transformation. We received some very positive news this year, which I will report in this newsletter, and

we have the full support of the school to continue moving forward. Over time, we expect to see a revitalized, if somewhat different, program from what you may have experienced when you were here and a program of which we may all be proud.

We all know that the economy has been bad and that the university has suffered five consecutive years of state budget cuts. During this period, we lost a number of faculty due to retirements and career moves. The school has not yet been able to replace all the faculty members we lost, which has admittedly put a strain on the program. We are very pleased to have an excellent new faculty member joining us this fall, Paul Harris, an alumnus of our program. We now have three full-time faculty members and one part-time. Another faculty search is planned for the coming year.

The Curry School has very clearly expressed its commitment to the counselor education pro-gram, with a current focus on the master’s degree in school counseling. We are really excited to begin working with our new candidates, who were selected from a highly competitive pool and represent the best of the best. As you may have heard, the master’s degree in mental health coun-seling has been discontinued. The school, however, has begun recruiting and hiring new faculty with the school counseling emphasis in mind, and faculty in other program areas are taking a renewed interest in us.

In this newsletter, you can read more on the current state of the program, an overview of recent transitions, and highlights of the achievements of some of our many outstanding alumni.

The M.Ed. in School CounselingThe master’s of education program in school counseling has been reorganized and reaccredited

so it will thrive. A new cohort of ten outstanding students entered the program this fall, selected

education

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/// Sandra I. Lopez-Baez, Director of the Curry Counselor Education Program

—continued on page 2

Editor: Sandra I. Lopez-Baez, DirectorCounselor Education Program

Counselor Education is published by the Curry School of Education and is sponsored by the Curry School of Education Foundation, P.O. Box 400276, Charlottesville, VA 22904

http://curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter

The Curry Alumni Portal Get more news about fellow alumni and upcoming events:

Curry in the RankingsIn 2011, the Curry School of Education was ranked 22nd among graduate schools of education by U.S. News & World Report.

Message from Dean Pianta, p. 2Notes from Counselor Ed, p. 2New Frontiers: Erin Berry p. 3Leadership: Brad Erford, p. 3Class Notes, p. 4

Career ServicesHilary Kerner (M.Ed. ‘98), Director of Career Services for the Curry School, reminds Curry alumni that they are welcome to attend the U.Va. Educators’ Expo Education Job & Interviewing Fair on March 22, 2012, if interested in any type of position in K-12 education (including counselor, teacher, speech-language patholo-gist, or administrator positions).

—State of the Program, continued from page 1

Meet Paul HarrisThe school counseling program welcomes alumnus Paul Harris to the faculty. His research interests include school coun-seling, issues related to equity, access, and social justice in schools, and the psychosocial development of African-American male student-athletes. He has worked as a high school counselor in Loudoun County Public Schools and in Newport News and as an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University. Harris received his undergraduate degree in Health/Physical Education from the Curry School in 2001, his master’s degree in K-12 School Counseling from Curry in 2003, and his Ph.D. in Counselor Education from the University of Maryland-College Park in 2009. Paul says he has been happily married to Taylor Harris, whom he met at U.Va., for 6 years, and they have a wonder-ful daughter, Eliot, who is 9 months old. “We are excited to be back in Charlottesville and back at Curry!” Paul says.

Military Veterans @ U.Va.Military Veterans @ UVa, the University’s newest student organi-zation, was established last spring by Seth Hayden, a Counselor Ed doctoral student at the time, and master’s student Allison Cutright. The organization is comprised of student veterans, active duty military person-nel and civilian students that meet monthly. Its mission is to provide a place for veterans or active-duty military to connect with one another, learn about resources to which they have access—counseling, academic and financial aid—and reflect on shared experiences.

The Curry School counselor education program is 60 years old and has been very successful at producing graduates

who are excellent counselors and leaders in the profession. Our alumni have served terms as president of the American Counseling Association and ACA’s divisions. A number of alumni are also serving terms as president or members of the board of directors of CACREP, the National Board of Certified Counselors, and Chi Sigma Iota International Counseling Honor Society. Many others are exemplary leaders and practitioners in agencies and communities across the country. We are all very proud of your success and recognize that your reputation makes the Curry School look even stronger.

I want you to know that the school counseling professional program has my wholehearted support. I believe the program can be a core focus of Curry’s efforts in the future. It is our express objective to hire additional faculty so we can once again admit students in the counselor education doctoral program.

We are deeply indebted to alumni who have come to Dr. Lopez-Baez offering their expertise and ideas for keeping the program on the cut-ting edge of the profession despite constraints. Thank you for staying engaged and supporting the program in such a positive manner.

We are committed to staying in touch with you as the program evolves through this period of renewal.

From the Dean

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from a pool of topnotch candidates. Over the next two years of full-time academic work (including 600 hours of internship work), they will be prepared to be accountable, competent, and reflective counselors who promote the academic, career, and personal/social development of PK-16 youth. We continue to consider innovative ways to deliver courses to students (e.g., through hybrid online courses) and to work as efficiently as possible in light of our current minimal faculty staffing.

The school counseling program underwent a review and onsite visit by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) in spring 2011 and was accredited through 2013 with conditions. These conditions related to the changes in the program, and accreditation guidelines must be met by April 2013, when a progress report is submitted to the CACREP Board in order to receive seven additional years of program accreditation. The program will then be accredited through October 2019.

Ph.D. in Counselor Education We have temporarily suspended acceptance of new doctoral students to the counselor educa-tion program as we reconfigure and ensure that the master’s program in school counsel-ing is solid. As new faculty are hired we fully intend to reopen doctoral program admissions within the next few years.

Personal and Career Development CenterOur participation in the Sheila C. Johnson Center for Human Services is a great advantage for the PCDC. Facing a potential scale-back of services, the Sheila Johnson Center’s clinical administrator found the necessary funding for our first-ever postdoctoral fellowship to coordinate and staff the PCDC. Seth Hayden has accepted the fellowship. He graduated last year and has been a huge asset to our program and to the center. He is able to see six to eight clients per week. Some of our local alumni gen-erously volunteer their time to see clients we might not otherwise be able to accommodate. This is a strong base upon which we can build new services.

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Read more at curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter

/// Seth Hayden counsels with a student in a shared treatment room in the Sheila C. Johnson Center for Human Services.

A message of support from Bob Pianta

The president-elect of the American Counseling Association is Brad Erford (Ph.D. ‘93), a proud alum-

nus of the Curry School. Erford agreed to answer a few questions about his goals for the organization, the influence of Curry on his career, and his advice for new counseling professionals. What is the most pressing issue in your field that you hope to be able to address as president of ACA?While there are numerous pressing issues at this time in the history of the counseling profession, I think two are particularly critical. First, we need to do a better job orienting our master’s students, doctoral students, and new professionals to the profession of counseling. Many still look at their graduate degree as necessary only to get a job, rather than as a specialized discipline and lifelong career path. I will emphasize creating incentives and mentor-ing for student members to help them transi-tion into their professional years as continuing members of a vibrant professional association. Second, I will promote outcome research and

use of evidence-based practices in counseling. We know a great deal about what works in counseling, but there is a great deal more we need to explore and uncover to best serve the public and move our profession forward.How did your Curry School experience play a role in preparing you for a path of leadership?Professional identity and leadership were expectations imparted throughout our experi-ences in the Curry School and especially in the counselor education department. You could not experience the gravitas of a Bob Pate, Skip Niles, or Sandra Lopez-Baez and not understand that you were expected to assume a leadership position in a diverse and changing world. I developed a strong professional iden-tity as a counselor, social justice orientation, and respect for how education changes lives. I also regularly meet alumni from U.Va. who have taken leadership positions in national, regional, state, and local counseling associations. What advice do you have for more recent graduates of Curry’s masters or doctoral degree programs?

Network, network, network! Classes and working with fellow students or profes-sors on projects is one thing, but really focus on expanding your horizons outside of the university. Get out and meet colleagues at state, regional and national meetings—and really meet and connect with them! This is critical at any juncture in a young professional’s career—and not just dur-ing tough economic times. Donald Super, a career developmental theorist, wrote about “planned happenstance”—which loosely trans-lated means taking advantage of opportunities that occur by being in the right place at the right time. You just never know when your network connections will create the perfect opportunity to launch, support, or transition your career trajectory. It happens frequently to all of us.

Leadership: Brad Erford

Read more of our interview with Brad at curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter

Read more about Erin at curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter

What is the role of a virtual school counselor in an online school? Figuring out the answer was

the intriguing challenge accepted by Erin Berry (Ph.D. ‘06) shortly after completing her coun-selor education program.

Berry joined a five-person team charged with building the academic program for Virtual Virginia when the Virginia Department of Education decided to combine the Virtual Virginia Advanced Placement School and the Virginia Satellite Education Network. The online school offers Advanced Placement, world language, core academic, and elective courses to students in middle and high schools.

Developing the school counseling program from the ground up, Erin served as a resource to local school counselors not familiar with online programs and helped instructors under-stand how to serve students with special needs in the online environment.

“It seemed like an opportunity to be on the ground floor of a new frontier in education,” Berry says. “School counselors always seem to be the last person to the table in educational reform, and I saw this as an opportunity to be at the table from the beginning.”

Her role turned out to be valuable in unex-pected ways, as well. “In the online environ-ment, the anonymity that keeps students from sharing things is erased. From day one, I had teachers sending students to me because the problems the students raised in discussion boards were intimidating to the teachers,” Berry recalls. She believes her greatest contri-bution was applying her background and train-ing to provide initial support and then facili-tate the students’ access to the resources they needed at the local level. She says she worked hand in hand with the local school counselors.

Berry has also been a valuable resource for Curry’s school counseling program, according

to Sandy Lopez-Baez, program coordinator. She has helped generate ideas about ways Curry could take portions of a program online but still maintain the integrity and rigor for which the Curry School is known.

She is clear about the reason she is willing to help Curry support more innovative ways of delivering courses: “I’m hoping that the oppor-tunity presents itself for me to help a program that gave so much to me,” she says.

This year, Berry has moved on to a new challenge, one influenced by her Virtual Virginia experience. She has joined the faculty of Capella University.

“The great thing about Capella is that it allows me to teach face to face at the clinical residencies but still utilize technology in a way that helps those who want to continue their education to do so without the limits of time and travel to a specific location.”

New Frontiers: Erin Berry

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COUNSELOR

Kathryn Alessandria (Ph.D. ‘08) Leslie Andreae (M.Ed. ‘79 Ed.S. ‘84) Gwendolyn Baugh (M.Ed. ‘11) Kristina Bethea (M.Ed. ‘07) Danielle Blanchard (M.Ed. ‘03) iNeil Bradley (M.Ed. ‘79) James Bryant (M.Ed. ‘06) Rhonda M. Bryant (Ph.D. ’05)Nancy Waldman-Chaney (M.Ed. ‘96) Nancy Church (M.Ed. ‘97) Sharon Cox (M.Ed. ‘79) Anna DeBenedet (M.Ed. ‘05) Kevin Doyle (Ed.D. ‘99) Penny Bach Evins (M.Ed. ‘96) Amanda G. Flora (Ph.D. ’08) iPamela Frederick (M.Ed. ‘85)Kristin Frommeyer (M.Ed. ‘02) Erin Gray (M.Ed. ‘06) Charlotte Hamilton (Ph.D. ‘03) Frances Hersey (M.Ed. ‘90) Tyler Hess (Ed.D ‘69) Adele Horwitz (M.Ed. ‘08) Garret R. Hullstrung (M.Ed. ‘88)Jo-Anne Reavis-Hurlston (M.Ed. ‘78) Lisa Johnson (M.Ed. ‘97) Ellen (Murphy) Jones (M.Ed. ‘09)Tara Jungersen (M.Ed. ‘97)

Josephine Kim (Ph.D. ‘05) Katy Kreienbaum (M.Ed. ‘95) Ryann Laden (M.Ed. ‘01)Suzanne LaMar (M.Ed. ‘00) Karen Langer (M.Ed. ‘79) Joseph Lynch (Ph.D. ‘89) Ann McCollum (M.Ed. ‘93) Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy (B.S. ‘86, M.Ed. ‘89) Alison Neil (M.Ed. ‘10) Mark Newlen (M.Ed. ‘79)Cijlvere Nute (M.Ed. ‘01) Kurt Olausen (M.Ed. ‘94) Steve Parker (B.S. ‘76 PE; M.Ed. ‘83) Marsh Pattie (M.Ed. ‘03) Cindy Payne (M.Ed. ‘94) Lance Percy (Ed.D. ‘78) Ricki Perry (M.Ed. ‘07)Patrice Porter (M.Ed. ‘92) Lori Richardson (M.Ed. ‘06) Martin Ritchie (Ed.D ‘78) Patsy Anderson-Rusmisel (M.Ed. ‘88)Amanda Ruthven (M.Ed. ‘04) Michelle Samuels-Jones (M.Ed. ‘96) Thomas Sherman (Ph.D. ‘11) Jacqueline Sullivan-Smoot (M.Ed. ‘79) Sophie Speidel (B.S. ‘84 PE; M.Ed. ‘89) Donald Stanton (Ed.D ‘65)

Anne M. Steen (M.Ed. ‘87) Mary Stripling (M.Ed. ‘78) Cindy Trauscht (M.Ed. ‘99) Michael Turner (M.Ed. ‘84) Erika Viccellio (M.Ed. ‘98) Laura Wheat (Ph.D. ‘11) Deborah White (M.Ed. ‘76) Gigi Davis-White (M.Ed. ‘96) Ariana Williams (M.Ed. ‘09, Ed.S. ‘09) Gina Womack (M.Ed. ‘98) Janet Younger (M.Ed. ‘72)

CLASS NOTES

Counselor Education Alumni NewsletterP.O. Box 400268417 Emmet Street SouthCharlottesville, VA 22904-4268

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Submit your class note at curry.virginia.edu/classnotesWe were thrilled to receive an overwhelming response of class notes from our alumni! There were so many, we couldn’t fit them all in the newsletter. Following is an alphabetical listing of Counselor Ed alumni who submitted information. You can read their complete class notes online at curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter

Remembering Dr. WalterSusan Craig (B.S. ’61) is coordinating a fundraising drive to honor the late Dr. Paul B. Walter. As a part of this initiative, we are looking for memories and stories from all alumni about Dr. Walter’s impact on the Curry School. If you would like to share your thoughts, please contact Kelly Reinhardt in the Curry School Foundation office at 434-243-1962 or at reinhardt@virginia.edu.