Curry Counselor Education Alumni Newsletter

FALL 2012

COUNSELOR education The Counselor Education program will host its first annual School Counseling Summit on November 7, 2012.

School counselors, school counseling administrators, and counselor educators will gather to discuss the summit’s theme, “School Counseling for Social Justice.”

The summit will take place on Grounds from 1–4 p.m. in Bavaro Hall Rm. 116 at 417 Emmet St. (next to Ruffner Hall).

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy (B.S. ‘86, M. Ed. ‘89) of Johns Hopkins University will be the keynote speaker, and several other presenters—including Patrick Akos (Ph.D. ‘00) of the University of North Carolina—will participate in a panel discussion.

If you are interested in attending, email schoolcounselinguva@ gmail.com.

Admission is free, and you can earn recertification points.

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

P HOTO C RE D I T

First Annual School Counseling Summit

/// Curry Counselor Ed faculty, Derick Williams, Antoinette Thomas, and Paul Harris

Curry Counselor Ed

Preparing Transformed School Counselors

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he Counselor Education program continues to shift its focus to the development of school counselors. We are dedicated to preparing school counselors to be systemic change agents in the lives of students.

With Dean Pianta’s full support, we recently committed to reform our curriculum to align with the tenets of the Education Trust’s Transforming School Counseling Initiative.

We will also infuse the themes of the ASCA National Model into each course required for the master of education degree in school counseling.

The curriculum will be a structured sequence of courses that prepare students to be advocates committed to • Facilitating the removal of individual and institutional barriers to student learning.

• Preparing all students to be college and career ready.

• Promoting educational equity, access, and social justice in schools.

As a result, our graduates will be implementing comprehensive, data-driven school counseling

“Dr. Thomas brings a wealth of experience in this new phase of the School Counseling program. ” —continued on page 2

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—continued from page 1

Flora Welcomed to the Faculty Amanda Flora (Ph.D. ‘08) joins the Curry faculty on a part-time basis this year.

As a student at Curry, Flora was coordinator of the Personal Career and Development Center, where she provided career development and personal counseling services to undergraduate students.

After graduation, Flora served as assistant director of career services at the McIntire School of Commerce until leaving to spend more time with her growing family. In addition to the time she spends at home with her children, she teaches career counseling and other counseling courses to graduate students and works independently as a career counselor at McIntire and other schools nationwide. She is a member of several professional and honor associations, including the National Career Development Association, and is a National Certified Counselor.

“I’m thrilled and honored to be asked to return to Curry in this capacity,” Flora says. “The core faculty here are so approachable, and the program always has the highest quality students.”

programs that address the personal/social, academic, and career needs of all students.

Leading this effort is recently named program director, Antoinette Thomas, who has been teaching courses in the Counselor Education program for several years. She has been working to ensure the continued development of our students, while strengthening current relationships with local counselors and administrators and establishing new partnerships with education stakeholders.

To help facilitate that process, Thomas will spearhead an effort to develop an advisory board comprised of alumni and other stakeholders to provide insight and guidance as we move forward.

Over the summer, former program director Sandy Lopez-Baez relocated to Montclair State University after 11 years of tremendous service to the Curry School program.

Class Notes Submit your class note at curry.virginia.edu/classnotes Read more. We were thrilled to receive so many class notes that we couldn’t fit them all in the printed newsletter. Following is a listing of Counselor Ed alumni who submitted information.

You can read their complete class notes online at curry.virginia.edu/couns-ed-newsletter 1960s Carl McDaniels (M.Ed. ’57, Ed.D. ’64) 1970s Darcey Bird (M.Ed. ‘77, Ed.S ‘82) Suzanne Burch (M.Ed. ‘79) William Hallman (M.Ed. ‘78) Ed Nolan (Ed.D ‘77) Martin Ritchie (M.Ed. ’74, Ed.D. ’78)

Join the Curry Counselor Ed Facebook group!

Search on “UVA Counselor Education Alumni.”

1980s Valerie Acosta (M.Ed. ‘87) Terri Higgins (M.Ed. ‘87) David Steinke (M.Ed. ‘88) Mary Thompson (M.Ed. ‘81) 1990s Shannon Bowles (M.Ed. ‘97) Eric Cooper (M.Ed. ‘94) Julie Cunningham (M.Ed. ‘93) Kevin Doyle (Ed.D. ‘99)

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“Dr. Thomas brings a wealth of experience in this new phase of the School Counseling program,” Lopez-Baez said. “Her leadership will bridge the established tradition of excellence the program has been known for, with the newer approaches to course delivery and innovations adopted by the Curry School.”

The Counselor Education program currently has three full-time faculty members: Derick Williams and Paul Harris have returned to work alongside Thomas.

Amanda Flora was recently hired as a parttime faculty member and will teach courses in the Counselor Education program for the 2012-2013 school year.

The school is currently planning to recruit and hire additional full-time faculty in the near future with the school counseling emphasis in mind.

Chapin Faulconer (M.Ed. ‘99) Jennifer Hoffman (M.Ed. ’99) Ann McCollum (M.Ed. ‘93) Susie Mullins (M.Ed. ‘90) Kurt Olausen (M.Ed. ‘94) Lori Willy (M.Ed. ‘99) 2000s Kathryn Alessandria (Ph.D. ‘02) Ryann McKinley Laden (M.Ed. ’01) Dana Levitt (M.Ed. ‘95, Ph.D. ‘01) Casey Loftus (M.Ed. ‘09) Mikhal McPherson Salzberg (M.Ed. ’07) Marsh Pattie (M.Ed. ‘03, Ph.D. ‘12 Soc Fdns) Kelly Sisk (M.Ed. ‘03) Sarah Van Orman (M.Ed./Ed.S. ‘04) David Wilkerson (M.Ed./Ed.S. ‘06) 2010s Eleanor Boyce (M.Ed. ‘12) Laura Wheat (Ph.D. ‘11)

Distinguished Alum Martin H. Ritchie

The Curry School Foundation recognizes the generosity of the following alumni from the Counselor Ed program who have made donations so far in 2012:

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he outstanding career of Martin H. Ritchie (M.Ed. ’74, Ed.D. ’78) was recognized this year by the Curry School Foundation, who awarded him its 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award. Ritchie is a professor and chair in The University of Toledo’s Judith Herb College of Education, Health Science and Human Service.

This well-deserved honor follows on the heels of his five-year term on the board of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), where he spent his last two years as chair.

Previously, he has served a term as president of the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, an organization he cofounded. He has been active in numerous national and state-level professional associations over the course of his career, as well as editing the journal Counselor Education and Supervision.

“Martin Ritchie is a name synonymous with professional counseling leadership,” says Dana Heller Levitt (M.Ed. ’95, Ph.D. ’01). “His leadership and dedication to the profession are among the most genuine and fruitful I have experienced and truly reflect the virtues worthy of recognition.”

Levitt served with Ritchie on the CACREP board and remembers the gist of his advice to her about professional leadership: “This is what U.Va. prepared us and expects us to do.”

Ritchie recently shared some reflections on his Curry education and his professional achievements.

What did you find most valuable about your experience at the Curry School?

The most valuable experience for me was the personal attention I received from the faculty members....Professors like Joan Franks, Ken LaFleur, Jeannette Brown, Bob Pate, and my advisor, Bill VanHoose always managed to find time to listen to me and mentor me. To this day I try to live up to their models as caring professionals.

What have you found most fulfilling about your professional work over the years?

The students, without a doubt the students.

They are the future of counseling, education, our country. Watching them enter the program

Thank You!

with anxiety and doubt and then gradually gaining confidence with experience is a wondrous thing to behold and be part of. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than to attend a professional conference and have a former student come up to me as say, “Dr. Ritchie, remember me? Guess what I am doing now?”

What accomplishments make you most proud?

I feel good about helping to develop a counseling program in Australia. When I arrived there after receiving my Ed.D. from U.Va., I didn’t know a soul in the entire continent.

Most of my friends told me that I was crazy to go, but Dr. VanHoose told me that he had confidence in me, so I went determined not to let him down. Things turned out pretty well. I met my wife.

I am proud of being selected to serve on the CACREP board of directors. I am very proud of the work that the board accomplished during my tenure. It was quite satisfying to see so many dedicated professionals working so hard to improve the training of counselors and the counseling profession. Curry graduates are well represented on the board.

Xuri M. Allen

Nancy S. Lackey

Thomas Bachhuber

Karen B. Lanpher

Dorothy W. Beard

Jason E. Life

Elizabeth W. Becker

Elizabeth H. Link

Cynthia C. Bedell

David L. Lovett

Fred H. Billups

Cynthia L. Martin

David Black

David P. Matthews

Nancy Brasher

Eileen S. Nelson

Elizabeth Breeden

Monica L. Nixon

Nancy D. Brennan

Edwin J. Nolan

Eleanor C. Bryan

Randy E. Norris

Andrew L. Carey

Pamela O’Callaghan

Joseph H.

Steven H. Parker

Carpenter III

Roseann N. Parks

Karen O. Clifford

John K. Pegues IV

John K. Connors

Connie M. Pullen

Lawrence C. Davis

Jennifer S. Purcell

Margaret A. Dowling

David L. Richards

Lewis H. Drew,

Brian D. Robie

Carolyn S. Earehart

Linda H. Ross

Penny B. Evins

Elizabeth Salgado

Shirley C. Farrier-

John C. Scheri

Strother

Donna G. Shank

Martha T. Foster

Elizabeth Y.

Ellis C. Gedney

Simpson

Joseph H. Gieck

Rachel L. Spector

Richard C. Glover

Donald S. Stanton

Katherine E. Hagan

Anne T. Steen

Sharon B. Hamner

David P. Steinke

Margaret J. Harvey

Mary W. Stout

Robin B. Harvey

Mary Ann Stripling

Richard K. Harwood

Jacqueline A.

Terri Lynn Higgins

Sullivan-Smoot

Jennifer L. Hoffman

Jacquelyn Tulloch

Dennis R. Howard

Andrew R. Walpole

Julie A. Jennings

Mary H. Weybright

Marilyn C. Kameen

Frank C. Wickers

Joanne F. Kee

Cara Wright

These gifts directly benefit Curry students and the quality of their educational experiences. Your support is very much appreciated!

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

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NONPROFT ORG. US POSTAGE PAID PPCO

A Newsletter for Alumni of Curry School Programs in Counselor Education P.O. Box 400268 417 Emmet Street South Charlottesville, VA 22904-4268

School Counseling for a Change

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy Leads from the Heart

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heryl Holcomb-McCoy’s passion is fueled by the injustice of a system in which good students with high aspirations are too often held back by an inadequate education.

Her work with large urban school districts in New York City and Baltimore has opened a window on just how much unfairness can be encountered by some minority and low income students. She has dedicated her career to changing the face of urban education through the work of skilled school counselors—counselors who understand the needs of diverse groups of students, who resist their own biases, and who focus on career and college readiness for all students.

Holcomb-McCoy, is currently Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. She began her career, though, as an elementary teacher in Montgomery County, Md., after earning her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from the Curry School in 1986.

“There was an exceptionally talented school counselor at my school, and I was in awe of her influence on the daily lives of students, parents, teachers, and other community members” she says. “She became my mentor, and I realized that I wanted to become a counselor or psychologist. My principal encouraged me to return to graduate school to follow my dream.”

Back to Curry she came for a master’s degree in counselor education, which she completed in 1989.

In 1996 Holcomb-McCoy earned her Ph.D. in counseling and counselor education from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She spent two years at Brooklyn College in New York, then 11 years at the University of Maryland, College Park. She moved to Johns Hopkins in 2009, where she served for her first two years as chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services. In her current role as vice dean she guides and monitors academic programming and faculty issues and oversees student affairs.

Over the course of her career she has written and spoken extensively on school and multicultural counseling. Her book School Counseling to Close the Achievement Gap (Corwin) recommends strategies for creating 4

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equitable educational environments in the face of factors such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism that can contribute to academic failure.

She conducted a $300,000 national study funded by the College Board in 2006 that examined the impact of school counseling programs on the college preparation of urban, minority youth. She is currently working on a $1.6 million IES grant project examining a cultural proficiency and student engagement model.

Her work has been recognized by various organizations over the years. In 2009 Holcomb-McCoy received both the Mary Smith Arnold Anti-Oppression Award at the American Counseling Association conference and The National Advocacy Award for Family/Community Empowerment from the National Office of School Counselor Advocacy.

Although her current position at JHU takes a more administrative bent, her passion for education remains intact.

“I’d like to change public education so that all students have an equal, equitable chance for success, whether it be going to college or achieving the career that they want. I would like for my research to make an impact on the way school counselors do their work,” Holcomb-McCoy says. “I also would like to change the face of urban education in some shape or form through the work of school counselors.”

Holcomb-McCoy will be the keynote speaker at Curry’s upcoming School Counseling Summit on Nov. 7 (see announcement on front page).

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