After earning her Ph.D. in Counselor and Counselor Education from UNC Greensboro in 2008, Dr. Elysia Clemens headed west to Colorado and a tenure-track position in the counseling department at the University of Northern Colorado where she remained for over a decade. But then Clemens jumped at the opportunity to move into a role with the University of Denver’s Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, a unit that assists government agencies and community partners with research into public policy matters.

Led by Dr. Carrie Wachter Morris, members of the Department of Counseling and Educational Development (CED) inside of the UNC Greensboro School of Education have been awarded a $5.6 million grant from the United States Department of Education. The grant, to be used over five years, is a training grant to directly address the large, unmet need for the preparation of mental health professionals in public schools.

The history of the counseling profession parallels the history of the counseling program at UNC Greensboro in many ways. Those parallels are perhaps most obvious in the life and legacy of Dr. Nicholas A. Vacc, former faculty member (1979-2002) and department chair (1986-1996), and one of the driving forces in the professionalization of the counseling field.

The Round Rock Independent School District, just north of Austin, Texas, serves about 45,000 students and is where Dr. Amy Grosso, a 2008 Ph.D. graduate of UNC Greensboro’s Department of Counseling and Educational Development (CED), has helped to implement what may be the future of the relationship between schools and the police.