ISU’s Renee C. Howells Awarded $20,000 Counseling Fellowship from NBCC and Affiliates

As an NBCC MFP fellow, Howells 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 Howells and the 22 other doctoral counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award. Howells is a graduate of The College of Idaho, in Caldwell, and of Gonzaga University, in Spokane, Washington, and is currently a doctoral student in the counselor education and supervision program at Idaho State University, in Pocatello.

Howells is interested in researching the intersection of disability, higher education, and access to mental health care. Specifically, she is passionate about serving individuals with sensory disabilities, which includes the d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HH) populations. Howells is empowered to address and challenge the social barriers between the d/Deaf community and dominant hearing community as it relates to seeking mental health services, lessening stigma and creating meaningful therapeutic relationships. Her dissertation research focuses on highlighting the experiences of d/Deaf and HH counselors-in-training in CACREP-accredited programs in the United States.

The MFP will allow Howells to become more involved in outreach and advocacy for the d/Deaf and HH minority populations. The fellowship will also aid Howells in developing more inclusive and sensitive clinical and educational curriculum for students who identify with disability within counselor education.

The NBCC Foundation has also awarded 30 $8,000 master’s-level fellowships through the MFP-Youth (MFP-Y) and 31 master’s-level fellowships of up to $11,000 through the MFP-Addictions Counselors MFP-Addictions Counselors (MFP-AC).The Foundation plans to open the next NBCC MFP application period in September 2017. 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.