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. Currently he serves as co-chair of the ASCA Position Statement Committee.

Brent is a former school counselor from Wasatch County School District, Utah. Currently, he is also an education consultant for the Utah Anti-Bully Coalition and has developed two schoolwide bully-prevention programs: Bully Blockers and the Cool 2Care Revolution. Burnham also served as the Utah School Counselor Association elementary-level vice president, is an ASCA-certified trainer, lead RAMP reviewer and was a 2011 School Counselor of the Year finalist.

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 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 utilizing trauma-informed practice.

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.

After a 25-year career in K­–12 education, Carol taught in counselor preparation programs at George Mason University and Johns Hopkins University. Carol is a lead RAMP reviewer, co-author of ASCA’s “Making DATA Work" and an associate editor for ASCA's Professional School Counseling journal.

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 award Mark the Mary E. Gehrke Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

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, ASCA National Model, RAMP and ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success training.

Steve Schneider 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.

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.

Anita is a former school counselor and district school counseling leader. She is co-author of “Making DATA Work” and “School Counselor Leadership: An Essential Practice,” in addition to peer-reviewed journal articles. She has served as a reviewer and guest editor for ASCA’s Professional School Counseling journal.

Paul is a recipient of the college's Outstanding Teaching Award. A former president of the Nebraska School Counselor Association, Barnes has tought solution-focused techniques to school counselors, teachers, graduate students and mentors across the United States and has practiced solution-focused techniques with adolescents for more than 18 years. He is a former high school teacher, middle and high school counselor and a supervisor of school counselor candidates.

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.

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.

Sylvia served as a school counselor for five years, during which she was awarded the New Counselor of the Year honor from the Alabama Counseling Association. She has taught various counseling courses both at the University of Alabama and in the master’s program for trauma and resilience in education at Capella University – Portland. Hollins serves on both the ASCA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and the University of Alabama DEI Committee.

TaRael is president-elect of the Illinois School Counselor Association (2020) and was named 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). Kee will graduate from Lindenwood University with a specialist degree in educational leadership in May 2021.

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 has been ASCA’s Ethics Committee chair since 2002. She writes a regular column on legal and ethical issues for ASCA School Counselor magazine and 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.