When extraordinary commitment to Regent’s mission and powerful academic impact intersect, you’ll find Dr. Ingo Tophoven—chair of the Counseling Ministries Department in Regent’s School of Psychology & Counseling and this year’s Chancellor’s Award recipient. “It’s a great honor,” says Tophoven. “I am humbled by God’s faithfulness in ways I could not have foreseen.” Tophoven received his M.A. in Counseling from Regent University in 1996 and finished a Ph.D. in Counselor Education & Supervision from Regent in 2014. Throughout his career, he has directed a large church-based Dr. Ingo Tophoven (SPC ’96 & ‘14) counseling center in Texas, founded a private practice, senior2021 Chancellor’s Award Recipient pastored two churches, and co-produced a live call-in radio show on faith and counseling issues. From 2008 until 2017 the Tophoven family lived and worked in Berlin, Germany, as bi-vocational counseling, coaching and consulting missionaries. In 2017, Dr. Tophoven joined the Regent University faculty to teach in the new counseling ministries department and lead the ongoing development of the department’s three graduate programs (M.A. in Human Services, M.A. in Pastoral Counseling, and Ph.D. in Counseling & Psychological Studies) as department chair. It’s now the fastest-growing department at Regent, with a 172% increase in enrollment over the last four years. Tophoven credits much of that to Regent’s quality of education and the School of Psychology & Counseling’s talented faculty and staff. “Regent has done and continues to do a great job in offering quality education. My goal is to make sure we continue high-quality education in our scaled programs today,” he says. In addition to leading the charge for academic excellence, Tophoven’s passion is to continue bringing healing to the broken through the ministry of the global Church. “One of our greatest ministry opportunities is to educate local and global leaders who can build bridges and support churches and pastors who are willing to create armies of healing. If we do that in an informed way, we can succeed in supporting the Church to minister more effectively and win souls for God.” The key here of course, for all of this to succeed, is God. “God is good. God is safe. God loves. The world does not. We can only win with God in this,” adds Tophoven.
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