Article Published: 9/29/2025
Dissertation Excellence Awards
The Dissertation Excellence Awards recognize original research that significantly contributes to the counseling profession and are judged according to presentation and clarity of ideas, sound methodology and interpretation of findings, innovative quality, and overall utility to the future of the counseling profession. Awards are conferred in two categories: quantitative research and qualitative research.
The winner of TPC’s 2025 Dissertation Excellence Award in the Quantitative category is Pamela Fullerton, for her dissertation entitled Undocumented Immigrant Intervention Training for Counselors: A Quasi-Experimental Study on the MSJCC and Ethnic Tolerance.
Pamela Fullerton, PhD, NCC, ACS, CCTP, C-DBT, CCATP, CGP, is the founder and clinical director of Advocacy & Education Consulting, a counseling and consulting organization dedicated to ensuring equitable access to mental health and well-being services. Dr. Fullerton is an adjunct instructor in the counselor education department at Northeastern Illinois University.
The winner of TPC’s 2025 Dissertation Excellence Award in the Qualitative category is Heather Olivier, for her dissertation entitled Therapeutic Approaches to Working with Perinatal Loss Clients: A Grounded Theory Study.
Heather Olivier, PhD, NCC, LPC, CCTP, PMH-C, is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor specializing in perinatal loss, psychosomatic presentations of traumatic loss, and neurodiversity. She is an Assistant Professor of counseling at Southeastern Louisiana University with a focus on creating comprehensive curriculum design as well as bridging perinatal loss research and neurodiversity research.
Learn more about Drs. Fullerton and Olivier at https://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/2025-dissertation-excellence-awards/.
Outstanding Scholar Awards The Outstanding Scholar Awards—one each in the categories of Concept/Theory and Quantitative or Qualitative Research—are selected each year from the articles published in that year’s volume, and are chosen based on their scholarly style, innovative and inventive material, and relevance to the counseling profession.
Taylor J. Irvine and Adriana C. Labarta received the 2024 Outstanding Scholar Award for Concept/Theory for their article “Enhancing Counselor Trainee Preparedness for Treating Eating Disorders: Recommendations for Counselor Educators.”
Taylor J. Irvine, PhD, NCC, ACS, LMHC, is an Assistant Professor of clinical mental health counseling at Nova Southeastern University. Currently, Dr. Irvine serves as the Chair of Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) International’s Counselor Community Engagement Committee, in addition to several professional counseling committees and editorial boards..
Adriana C. Labarta, PhD, NCC, ACS, LMHC, is an Assistant Professor of clinical mental health counseling at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Labarta is an actively engaged member of several counseling organizations and serves as an editorial board member for Teaching and Supervision in Counseling and Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation.
Ashley Ascherl Pechek, Kristin A. Vincenzes, Kellie Forziat-Pytel, Stephen Nowakowski, and Leandrea Romero-Lucero received the 2024 Outstanding Scholar Award for Quantitative or Qualitative Research for their article “Teaching Suicide Assessment and Intervention Online: A Model of Practice.”
Ashley Ascherl Pechek, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC (CO), currently works as an Associate Professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania in the clinical mental health counseling graduate program. Her research interests include online learning, creativity in counselor education, military families and veterans, self-care, and suicide assessment and intervention.
Kristin A. Vincenzes, PhD, NCC, BC-TMH, ACS, LPC, is a counselor educator and full Professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania in the clinical mental health counseling graduate program. She has over 13 years of experience teaching in graduate counseling programs, including 10 years during which she served as a Program Director developing and growing a new program
Kellie Forziat-Pytel, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC (PA), currently works as an assistant professor at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania–Lock Haven. She is a part-time research support for the Clearinghouse for Military Readiness at Pennsylvania State University.
Stephen Nowakowski (not pictured) is a former graduate student of clinical mental health counseling at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.
Leandrea Romero-Lucero, PhD, ACS, LPCC, CSOTS, is an Associate Professor and Program Director for the 100% online clinical mental health counseling program at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania–Lock Haven. Dr. Romero-Lucero’s research interests are grief and loss for kinship caregivers, supervisor training and development, and burnout among providers who work with adult and juvenile sex offenders.
Learn more about these authors at https://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/2024-tpc-outstanding-scholar-award-winner-quantitative-or-qualitative-research/.
All these articles are free to read from TPC’s website. You can earn low-cost continuing education credits for reading these articles in CCE Academy.
Read more about the TPC annual scholarship awards here.
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