President's Letter

I hope everyone has settled into their Fall semester! It is with the greatest pleasure that I greet you as President of the North Atlantic Region of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. I am very excited to serve as your president, following in the tremendous footsteps of Dr. Stuart Chen-Hayes, 2010-11 President. I shall try to maintain the momentum he began and build upon it.

I am supported this year by a fabulously talented, committed, and creative Executive Board:

The Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, our online journal is quickly becoming a NARACES flagship under editors Dr. Edina Renfro-Michel and Dr. Larry Burlew. Designed to promote best practice and professional growth, the journal addresses supervison and training research, stories from the field, counselor development, supervision methods, and training techniques. The success of JCPS rests on the contriutions of member's scholarly insights and critical practice experiences. Consider contributing to JCPS and promoting the mission of NARACES in providing a forum to dialogue on the important things we do. 

It is exciting to see a growing, vibrant Graduate Student contingency led by Jodi Bartley, Grad Student Representative and Master's degree student in Mental Health. For students, NARACES offers networking and continuing education opportunities. For educators and supervisors in training, NARACES is a solid beginning to establishing social and scholarly connections.  

Along with Dr. Summer Reiner, President-Elect and Conference Chair, we will be planning the 2012 NARACES Conference to be held in Niagara Falls, NY on September 27-30. Our theme will be On the Edge: Preparing Counselors in a Rapidly Changing World. Watch for updates throughout the year. 

In the next few weeks, thanks to our Website Chair, Dr. Tim Poyton of Suffolk University, NARACES will be unveiling a new website. The new site is intended to provide our members with a source of content to learn, respond, and interact with others while discussing and processing important trends and topics in the counseling profession. You will find many additional links will be provided, including Discussion Boards. We are also increasing our social media presence and hope you will join us on Facebook. It is now easier, and more important than ever, to share articles, links and first-hand accounts at lightning speed and to get these things posted online to be viewed and discussed by the masses.  We encourage all members to continuously forward links of local success stories, upcoming events, as well as other important information to us for inclusion on website or Facebook*. It's as easy as copying the link and hitting send. 

Recognizing the need to remain informed of topical issues at both state and national levels, I am committed to continuously communicating with the membership and ensuring a high level support for all members. We will begin sending members quarterly newsletters in the late Fall 2012. We welcome all contributions. 

I invite you to join in and be a part of the exciting initiatives and collegiality NARACES offers. If you have not been actively involved in NARACES, please consider reviving your participation. We are much stronger as a group with many links than we are as individuals. Lets work together to demonstrate the power and importance of what we as Counselor Educators and Supervisors do everyday to produce outstanding school counselors; clinical mental health counselors; marital, couple and family counselors; student affairs counselors; career counselors; addictions counselors; and Counselor Educators and supervisors.

Yours in service,

Victoria Palmisano