“I was honored to learn that my colleagues and I are receiving the award for this article because of how much mentoring has benefitted me personally and professionally, and how committed I am to paying that forward to our students here at Appalachian.”

Dr. Lucy Purgason, assistant professor

BOONE, N.C. — Dr. Lucy Purgason, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling in Appalachian State University’s Reich College of Education (RCOE), has been named a recipient of the Chi Sigma Iota Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy (JCLA) Outstanding Article Award.

She and her co-authors — Dr. Janeé R. Avent Harris, assistant professor in the College of Education at East Carolina University; and Dr. Jessica Lloyd-Hazlett, assistant professor in the Department of Counseling at the University of Texas at San Antonio — have been recognized for their article “Mentoring Counselor Education Students: A Delphi Study with Leaders in the Field,” which was published in April 2018 in JCLA (Volume 5, Issue 2).

The award, which honors the authors of an exemplary article published in JCLA during the past year as selected by the journal’s editorial board, will be presented to Purgason, Harris and Lloyd-Hazlett at the American Counseling Association (ACA) Conference and Expo during the Delegate Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, March 30, in New Orleans.

“I was honored to learn that my colleagues and I are receiving the award for this article because of how much mentoring has benefitted me personally and professionally, and how committed I am to paying that forward to our students here at Appalachian,” Purgason said.

She added that the research for the article “involved interviewing mentoring award recipients in the counseling field to develop a list of research-informed mentoring considerations.”

From the article’s abstract:

“Mentoring is a professional leadership contribution of counselor educators resulting in personal and vocational benefits for students. A need to understand research-informed mentoring from the mentor perspective exists as much of the literature is informed by the mentee perspective. In this study, an expert panel of counselor educator mentoring award recipients completed three questionnaire rounds for the purpose of identifying mentoring components.”

About Dr. Lucy Purgason

Purgason holds both a Ph.D. in counseling and counselor education and an M.S./Ed.S. in school counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as a B.A. in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She joined the RCOE faculty in August 2017.

She is a licensed school counselor, National Certified Counselor and Approved Clinical Supervisor. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., she spent nearly five years working as a school counselor in elementary and high school settings. These settings included diverse school environments in both urban and rural communities, Title I schools and a school specifically for newly arrived refugee and immigrant students.

Purgason is a prolific author who regularly contributes to scholarly publications and is a sought-after presenter at state, regional and national conferences. She regularly engages in institutional and professional service and is a member of numerous professional organizations. Among these are the American School Counselor Association, American Counseling Association, Chi Sigma Iota International Honor Society for Professional Counseling and North Carolina School Counselor Association.

Her research interests focus on understanding the importance of relationships for immigrant and refugee students, and students of other underrepresented groups, in both K–12 and higher education settings. She is particularly interested in exploring the agentic processes that first- and second-generation immigrant students use to negotiate intersecting cultural and ethnic identities, and how social media is implicated in this process.

Along with these research interests, Purgason also pursues scholarship related to supervision and mentoring of counselor education students.

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About the American Counseling Association

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession. Founded in 1952, ACA is the world’s largest association exclusively representing professional counselors in various practice settings. Learn more at https://www.counseling.org/about-us/about-aca.

About the Reich College of Education

Appalachian State University offers one of the largest undergraduate teacher preparation programs in North Carolina, graduating about 500 teachers a year. The Reich College of Education enrolls more than 2,000 students in its bachelor’s, master’s, education specialist and doctoral degree programs, with offerings that span multiple fields — from teacher preparation, counseling, and therapy, to higher education, school and student affairs administration, library science, educational leadership and more. With over 10,000 alumni employed in North Carolina public schools, there is at least one Reich College graduate in every county in the state. Learn more at https://rcoe.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.