ISU student Alexia Brooke DeLeon awarded $20,000 counseling fellowship from NBCC and Affiliates

As an NBCC MFP Fellow, DeLeon will receive funding and training to support her education and facilitate her service to underserved minority populations.

The NBCC MFP is made possible by a grant first awarded to NBCC by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in August 2012. The Foundation is contracted by NBCC to administer the NBCC MFP, as well as training and collaboration activities, such as webinars, that are open to all National Certified Counselors (NCCs). The goal of the program is to strengthen the infrastructure that engages diverse individuals in counseling and increases the number of professional counselors providing effective, culturally competent services to underserved populations.

The NBCC MFP will distribute $20,000 to DeLeon and the 22 other doctoral counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award. DeLeon is a graduate of Angelo State University, in San Angelo, Texas, and of Adams State University, in Alamosa, Colorado, and is currently a doctoral student in the counselor education and counseling program at Idaho State University, in Pocatello.

DeLeon’s research interests include social justice pedagogy within counselor education, mindfulness-based sobriety, and multicultural issues in counseling and supervision, such as the experiences of Latina doctoral supervisors in counselor education. She is currently a graduate assistant at Idaho State University, where one of her roles includes mentoring and advocating for minority first-generation students like herself.

She is also currently working at a nonprofit inpatient facility that serves underserved youth with substance abuse concerns. She is interested in the intersection of communities of color and addictions counseling, as well as the impact of barriers faced for underserved minority populations within addictions counseling. This fellowship will assist her in furthering her research interests and shed light on barriers faced by underserved, minority populations within addictions counseling. In addition, this fellowship will help her receive specific education and training for working with minority populations, which impacts communities on a larger scale, such as helping underserved populations receive adequate treatment for addictions concerns. These experiences will help her to continue advocating for underserved minority voices within the counseling profession.

The Foundation plans to open the next NBCC MFP application period in September 2016. To learn more about the NBCC MFP and its fellows, please visit www.nbccf.org/Programs/Fellows.

ABOUT THE NBCC FOUNDATION
The NBCC Foundation is the nonprofit affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), based in Greensboro, North Carolina. NBCC is the nation’s premier professional certification board devoted to credentialing counselors who meet standards for the general and specialty practices of professional counseling. Currently, there are more than 60,000 National Certified Counselors in the United States and more than 50 countries. The Foundation’s mission is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change.