ASCA-Certified Trainers

Kristin has 27 years of school counseling experience in the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas, Nev. She has worked at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels and currently works in the district school counseling office. Kristin is an ASCA RAMP team captain and a member of the ASCA Position Statement Committee and ASCA Certification Committee. She was the 2018-2019 president of the Nevada School Counselor Association.

Mark has worked as a school counselor at the elementary, secondary and postsecondary levels; prior to that he was a high school and middle school science teacher. He is a past president of the Arizona School Counselors Association and a past Western Region vice president for ASCA.

Brent is a former Wasatch County School District school counselor and was an adjunct faculty member at Utah Valley University. He has developed two safe school programs, Bully Blockers and the Cool2Care Revolution, and trains educators nationally. He has a 500-hour yoga teacher certification and an extensive background in the art of mindfulness. He was a Utah School Counselor Association elementary-level vice president, is a RAMP team captain and 2011 ASCA School Counselor of the Year finalist.

Lauren began her career as a high school counselor in 2006. In this role, Lauren collaborated with her colleagues to earn RAMP recognition three times. She currently serves as a RAMP team captain. As a district office leader, she supports more than 500 K-12 school counselors, college and career specialists, and directors of student. She enjoys building relationships with school counselors, working alongside them as they implement comprehensive school counseling programs.

Kinea, a RAMP team captain, spent most of her career as a middle school counselor and led the school counseling department to earn RAMP in 2018. She was named the School Counselor of the Year in her district the same year. Prior to becoming a school counselor, Kinea was an education reporter. A passionate advocate for students and families, Kinea enjoys learning alongside school counselors and helping teams develop data-informed comprehensive school counseling programs.

Len started as a school counselor in 2006 and has worked as a school counselor, college & career counselor, division head for counseling, assistant principal and director of student services. Len has been a RAMP reviewer since 2015 and is now a RAMP team captain, as well as presenting on the ASCA National Model. Len is passionate about working with school counselors on proactive services, advocacy skills and collaborating with administration to better support students and close gaps.

Sarah has been a school counselor since 2007, beginning her career at the middle school level and is currently an elementary school counselor. She was the 2020 Wisconsin School Counselor of the Year and an ASCA School Counselor of the Year Finalist in 2021. Sarah is a lead RAMP reviewer and enjoys connecting with school counselors across the country to encourage and support the work they do for students.

Karen is a retired school counselor, with 35 years in public education. She has authored several books and frequently conducts trainings around counseling and comprehensive school counseling programming. Her primary areas for training include: understanding and implementing the ASCA National Model, building resiliency, delivering effective small groups, working with challenging students, understanding privilege and oppression, and using trauma-informed practice.

Onna is a lead RAMP reviewer and an adjunct faculty member in the school counseling graduate program at Providence College. She began her school counseling career in 1999 and has worked at both the high school and middle school levels. She served as president of the Rhode Island School Counselor Association (RISCA) from 2013-2015 and is currently secretary on the executive board. Onna was recognized as Advocate of the Year by RISCA in 2019.

As a school counselor, Nancy spearheaded the RAMP process in her school, which was the first middle school in the nation to receive the RAMP recognition. She is a past president of the California Association of School Counselors and past recipient of the California school counselor of the year award. She is an ASCA lead RAMP reviewer and a frequent presenter at state and national conferences.

Sarah is an adjunct instructor, school counseling trainer/consultant and RAMP reviewer. She’s a former school counselor and state-level school counseling leader. Sarah was the 2018 Oklahoma School Counselor of the Year and a 2019 ASCA School Counselor of the Year finalist. She’s a former ASCA and Oklahoma School Counselor Association board member. In 2019, her school received RAMP recognition.

Mark, a retired school counselor, is an experienced presenter and trainer who has presented at the national, state and district levels. He is described as a quiet leader who enjoys telling stories to illustrate his points. Mark has served as president of both ASCA and the Wisconsin School Counselor and worked as a school counselor for more than 20 years. ASCA awarded Mark the Mary E. Gehrke Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

In his current position with Vancouver Public Schools, Brian supports the implementation of comprehensive school counseling programs with 80 school counselors across the district. He's a former elementary and high school counselor with 25 years of experience and a RAMP team captain. He's a frequent presenter at the ASCA Annual Conference.

OTasha has been in school counseling since 1998, working at all three levels. She currently supervises district school counseling, is an adjunct professor at Webster University’s Columbia Metropolitan Campus and a past president of the Palmetto State School Counselor Association. She enjoys facilitating training for districts and schools on implementing the ASCA National Model, building advocacy skills and developing administrator/school counselor relationships.

Joni has led nine schools in her district to receiving the RAMP designation and has trained districts across the country on the ASCA National Model and presented numerous workshops on the ASCA National Model at conferences. She is a RAMP team captain and specializes in data, the ASCA National Model, RAMP and ASCA Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success training.

Steve has been a school counselor since 1996. During the span of his career, he has served on the ASCA Board of Directors, as well as several appointments on the Wisconsin School Counselor Association board. Steve has served as a RAMP reviewer for almost a decade and is currently a RAMP team captain. For the past three years, Steve has also served as an adjunct instructor in the school counselor preparation program at Marquette University.

Megen has been a high school counselor since 2010. She has successfully led her school counseling team through the RAMP process twice. In addition to her work as a RAMP team captain, she has presented at the district, state and national levels. Megen enjoys collaborating with school counselors to build data-informed school counseling programs that result in long-term positive outcomes for students.

In addition to her work with Chicago Public Schools, Heidi is also a clinical assistant professor of school counseling at Roosevelt University. She was the 2020 Illinois School Counselor of the Year, the 2020 Ray Piagentini High School Counselor of the Year and the 2019 Toni Tollerud School Counselor Educator of the Year. She is an Illinois School Counselor Association board member and a lead RAMP reviewer.

Nan worked as a K-12 educator for 36 years. She taught special needs students in elementary and middle school, was a middle and high school counselor and spent her last ten years as the supervisor of school counseling in a large urban district. She is a RAMP reviewer.

Jen is an associate professor and program coordinator at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Her work includes teaching clinical and school counseling courses and focuses on barriers to student success. Prior to her role in academia, she spent 11 years working as a school counselor and one year as a special education teacher. She is co-editor of “The School Counselor's Guide to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support” and co-author of ASCA’s “Making MTSS Work.”

In addition to her program leadership, Kathy teaches coursework in social justice and advocacy, school counseling, career counseling and addictive behavior counseling. Biles also facilitates workshops in motivational interviewing for schools and groups across the country.

Jen has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and numerous books on career and college readiness topics. She has presented her work nationally and internationally on a wide range of school counseling topics at over 100 professional conferences. She is an associate editor with Professional School Counseling journal and has served as president of the Louisiana School Counselor Association and the Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling.

Peg is an associate professor and school counseling coordinator at Central Connecticut State University and a former school counselor. Her research includes MTSS, social/emotional learning, school counselor ratios and universal screening for mental health concerns in schools. She is a co-author of “The School Counselor’s Guide to MTSS” and ASCA’s “Making MTSS Work” and the primary author of “Setting the Table for Tier 2 Small-Group Interventions: Fostering SEL & Academic Success.”

Gene previously worked as a school counselor for 27 years. He specializes in academic achievement and motivational interviewing, including strategies he used in individual and group work with his students when he was a high school counselor.

Emily was a special education teacher, school counselor and now is an associate professor and school counseling coordinator. She works with districts and schools across the U.S. on using a multitiered system of supports (MTSS) to create more equitable, safe and successful schools, authoring books: “Making MTSS Work” and “A School Counselor’s Guide to MTSS.” She is a national and state leader and previous chair of the Virginia School Counselor Association.

Sylvia has more than a decade of counseling experience at both the K-12 and university levels. Her research focus is on training school counselors in multicultural counseling competencies, educational equity, advocacy, trauma/crisis and the role of the school counselor. She's a certified consultant from Harvard University's College of Continuing Studies. Sylvia is historian on the Alabama School Counselor Association board and is on ASCA's DEI Committee.

TaRael is a former Illinois School Counselor Association president and was the Collinsville School District e-Educator of the Year (2017), recognized by College Board in (2018), received the Lindenwood Alumni Spotlight (2019) and awarded honorable mention for Illinois School Counselor of the Year (2020).

Gen is a licensed professional counselor specializing in grief work and is adjunct faculty in the Missouri State University counseling department. Previously, Gen worked as both a school counselor for nine years and a grief counselor for six years in the group and individual settings at Lost & Found Grief Center in Springfield, Mo. She's a former board member on both the ASCA and Missouri School Counselor Association boards of directors.

Russ is president of Sabella & Associates and the author of numerous articles and books on school counseling, technology, stress management and sexual harassment. He has trained and consulted with more than 50,000 educators in the areas of data, solution-focused brief counseling, digital reputation/cyberbullying, stress and anxiety and technology. He is a past president of both ASCA and the Florida School Counselor Association.

Carolyn was ASCA’s Ethics Committee chair from 2002-2022 and also authored the legal/ethical column in ASCA School Counselor magazine during that time. She is the author of numerous articles and books on school-counseling-related legal and ethical issues. She is a former ASCA president and a 2006 recipient of ASCA’s Mary E. Gehrke Lifetime Achievement Award.

A former middle school teacher, elementary and middle school counselor, Haley has been at Western Illinois University since 2019. She has been a member of the ASCA Ethics Committee since 2018, worked on the 2022 revision of the ASCA Ethical Standards and in August 2022 was named as the co-chair of the committee. She has presented and been published at the state and national level on the ethical responsibility of advocating for LGBTQ+ students.