SACES 2017 Elections

Congratulations to our newest members to the SACES Leadership team! Voting ended October 4, 2017. If you are interested in being a future SACES leader, our next call for nominations will be in early Fall 2018. If you have questions regarding the 2017 SACES nominations or elections, please contact Dr. Melanie Iarussi, SACES Past-President.

President-Elect-Elect 

Dr. Elizabeth Villares

Greetings SACES membership! It is with great pleasure that I am formally sharing my interest in serving as your next SACES President-Elect-Elect. I have spent the past 20 years working in the field of education. At the heart of my career has been the unswerving desire to help students and clients determine and reach their full potential. My journey began as a classroom teacher, a school counselor, and director of a school counseling program. In 2005, I began working as a counselor educator at Florida Atlantic University where I now serve as a professor and doctoral program coordinator in the Department of Counselor Education. Throughout my career, I have been passionate about helping others and in recent years I have taken on more active roles in the areas of mentoring, research, and leadership. My frequent collaborations with students on peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and involvement on dissertation committees demonstrate my commitment to mentoring. I have established a line of research that focuses on the development and implementation of evidence-based counseling interventions, yet it is the relationships I have formed through my partnerships with counselor educators and practitioners that continue to be most rewarding. Finally, a few of my recent leadership roles include serving as the 2016 AARC Conference Coordinator, chairing the ACES Awards committee, and serving the Florida School Counselor Association as the Chair-Elect. As a member of the SACES community, a former Emerging Leader, and the immediate past SACES Newsletter co-editor, I have had the pleasure of working with and alongside dedicated counselor educators and graduate students. I believe our association must serve all its members and thereby indirectly impact their clients across the 14 states in our region and beyond. If elected as the next SACES President-Elect-Elect, I would continue to support the executive board’s initiatives of establishing an association journal and expanding professional development opportunities. In addition, I would seek to add Evidence-based counseling, Mentoring, and Research to our current list of Special Interest Networks so that our members have the opportunity to connect with others with the desire to enrich their knowledge, skills, and practices in these areas. I believe my background makes me an excellent fit to serve as your next SACES President-Elect-Elect and I thank you in advance for your support.

Secretary-Elect

Dr. Janelle Bettis

With great pleasure I am seeking the position of Secretary on the executive board of SACES. I am seeking this position because I am committed to my professional identity as a counselor educator as well as professional counselor. The mission and values SACES align with my own. I am a professional counselor and recent graduate as a counselor educator. I am currently the Secretary for Maryland Counseling Association. In this role, I assist the executive board by keeping record of events at board/executive board meetings and disperse pertinent information to our members. I also coordinate times/days to ensure division and committee members are in attendance at our board meetings. Lastly, I complete other administrative duties as requested by the President, and President-Elect, within scope of knowledge of secretary. I am familiar with the responsibilities and duties needed for the position of secretary. I am also a 2017- 2018 ACES Emerging Leaders, NBCC Foundation Mentor and have been for the past two years and involved with SACES as co-chair of the graduate student committee for the second year. I have found working with SACES welcoming and open to providing opportunities to strengthen counselor education and supervision by encouraging support of research, knowledge, and skills within the education of counselors. Regarding my credentials, I am a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS), and Board Approved Clinical Supervisor and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) in the State of Maryland. I obtained my Masters of Arts in Community Counseling from Argosy University, Northern Virginia. I recently completed my Doctorate of Education in Counselor Education and Supervision at Argosy University, Northern Virginia. I have 4 years of experience working with children, adolescents and adults with a myriad of diagnoses such as bipolar, depression, anxiety, ODD, ADHD. I have worked in a variety of settings such as school, in-home, clinic and within the community. I would love to serve SACES as Secretary during the 2018-2019 year. Thank you, for your time and consideration.