Counseling Leaders and Advocates

Christine Sacco-Bene, PhD,is a clinical associate professor in the rehabilitation counseling program in the School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina. Her research interests focus on student professional identity development, teaching and mentoring, and working with individuals and families with disabilities. Her leadership roles include serving the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association as the public relations and awareness director (2019– 2020; 2020–2022) and as a board member for Lift Disability Network in Florida. Foremost are her roles as wife and mother.

Jodi L. Tangen, PhD, NCC, ACS,is an assistant professor and the counselor education program coordinator at North Dakota State University. She focuses her research on spirituality, relational depth, and social justice and diversity. She is also the proud mama of two delightful young children!

Andrew W. Wood, PhD, NCC,is an assistant professor of counseling and the mental health counseling track coordinator at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests primarily focus on psychosocial issues in cancer care and health as well as social justice and activism. His role as a counselor educator includes understanding the role of advocacy for students from an ecological perspective and integrating radical mental health theories and pedagogy into his teaching alongside traditional perspectives.

Cassandra A. Storlie and Barbara Herlihy

In this brief introductory chapter, we share how this book came into being and provide an overview of its organization. Part I focuses generally on culturally responsive counseling leadership and counselor leadership in the field. Part II profiles 13 leaders and advocates in the counseling profession. And Part III provides a synthesis and some concluding thoughts on how you might make the best use of what you have read.

Our plan for creating this book began serendipitously with a series of informal conversations that we enjoyed during breaks at the meetings of a national counseling organization in which we both held leadership positions at the time. We found that we shared a keen interest in leadership and advocacy and were excited to see how the counseling profession’s attention to these topics has grown in recent years. We talked about how much we had enjoyed Leaders and Legacies: Contributions to the Profession of Counseling (West et al., 2003), and as we talked, we realized that this was the most recent book that profiled leaders in our field—and nearly two decades had gone by since it was published. Some of the leaders profiled then are still active in the counseling profession and continue to make significant new contributions, others are no longer living, and some new leaders have emerged in recent times. With consultation and the inspiration of a decades’ long counseling leader, we recognized the need for a text that holistically integrated leadership and advocacy insights from current counseling leaders. It was time for a new work!

As we discussed our ideas about how to organize this book, an outline emerged for a book with three parts. These parts would capture the phenomena of counseling leadership and advocacy in counseling, the stories of individuals who have advanced our profession as leaders and advocates, and the “common threads” that unify the contributions they have made. Furthermore, it was imperative for us to emphasize practical guidance for counselors, counselor educators, and counseling students who aspire to be leaders and advocates.

Part I highlights current perspectives on leadership and advocacy in our profession. In addition to this chapter, two chapters provide information critical to the growth and development of new counseling leaders. In selecting this framework, we wanted readers to better understand key historical aspects of the development of the counseling profession while also considering the current social climate, particularly the impact of racial and ethnic injustices that have been prevalent throughout U.S. history. Likewise, we wanted newer professionals to have a clearer sense of what leadership and advocacy looks like on the job , to supplement what they had learned in the classroom.

Chapter 2, Culturally Responsive Counseling Leadership and Advocacy , chronicles salient aspects of the history of the American Counseling Association (ACA), including “Operationalization of the Multicultural Counseling Competencies” (Arredondo et al., 1996), the “ACA Advocacy Competencies” (Lewis et al., 2003), and the “Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies” (ACA, 2015), highlighting how they have led our profession not only in gaining multicultural competence but also in taking it a step further to engage in culturally responsive counseling leadership and advocacy. The growth in the perspective of counselors, moving from being culturally sensitive to becoming culturally responsive , is described through the lens of an ecological systems framework. The chapter authors address the history of the counseling profession and its roots in advocating for individuals and groups who are most marginalized in our society. Through transparency and engagement, the authors provide insights into how one can become a culturally responsive counseling leader and advocate by providing specific action steps in relation to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Essential characteristics of culturally responsive counseling leaders are also emphasized in this chapter. The chapter concludes with practical applications and describes how counseling students and practitioners can develop into culturally responsive counseling leaders and advocates.

Chapter 3, Leadership and Advocacy in the Field , describes how counselors advocate for their clients within the complex communities in which they reside. The chapter authors present a historical perspective that demonstrates how client advocacy has been the prominent focus for practicing counselors from the inception of our profession. Professional advocacy, which developed over time as counselors gained a sense of professional identity separate from other mental health professions, is also highlighted as a way to both unify and strengthen the counseling profession. The authors discuss how leadership and advocacy are inherently related and how advocacy initiatives taken on by counseling leaders affect our world today. Information on how to engage in the types of ground-level leadership that takes place daily within K–25 educational settings, clinical mental health and community settings, and counseling programs and universities is provided. The authors conclude by describing how counseling students and counseling practitioners can develop into servant leaders.

Part II is the “heart of the book.” It contains the personal and professional stories of 13 prominent leaders and advocates in the profession of counseling. Inspired by West et al. (2003), we established an Academy of Advisors to assist us in a systematic process to identify the leaders who are profiled in this book. The academy comprised five individuals who had held significant leadership positions in major counseling professional associations, had been widely acknowledged as leaders in the counseling profession, and remained actively engaged in the profession. As the editor spearheading this process, Cassie asked each advisor to independently generate a slate of 20 to 25 leaders/advocates they would nominate to be profiled in this book. Cassie then created a combined slate containing all names that appeared on at least two individually submitted lists. This slate was sent back to the advisors, who were then asked to narrow the list by selecting those whose “leadership and advocacy has had a long-term, broad impact on the counseling profession” and to consider “a representation of diverse leaders to be showcased.” Cassie then asked the advisors to place these names in rank order. The 13 individuals profiled in this book were ranked highest and identified most frequently by our advisors.