DIGEST - Volume 11, Issue 1

17 TPC Digest 17 | TPC Digest T h is is the sixth article in the ongoing Lifetime Achievement in Counseling Series. The purpose of this series is to highlight seminal figures in the profession of counseling and counselor education and their contributions to the profession. We hope that readers will utilize this series to better examine the state of the counseling profession and be encouraged to reflect on current and future challenges presented by the interviewees. T he sixth interviewee in this series is Michael Ryan, MEd, NCC, who is a certified school counselor and currently serves as the Coordinator of Student Supports for Monongalia County Schools in Morgantown, West Virginia. As Coordinator, he is responsible for providing student supports for almost 12,000 students in the county from Pre-K through 12th grade. He has been instrumental in coordinating consistent social-emotional learning practices for the county and guiding the implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model that looks at the whole student. He also built and is currently the head of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department of the county and works to provide professional development to the county staff in areas such as social-emotional learning, trauma- informed practices, and diversity and inclusion. P rior to his current position, Ryan was an elementary school counselor for 6 years in Monongalia County. During that time, he was named the 2018 West Virginia School Counselor of the Year. He has also done work as the career counselor at a college and served as a community mental health counselor. He builds relationships to increase support for students through his active participation in both local and national organizations, including as a member of the governing board for the West Virginia School Counseling Association and a member of the American School Counselor Association. In this interview, Ryan responds to several questions regarding the counseling profession and discusses growth and change within the school counseling profession, his journey to becoming a school counselor and community advocate, and the important role that unified practices play in benefitting each person in a community. Joshua D. Smith, PhD, NCC, LCMHC, LCASA, is a counselor at the Center for Emotional Health in Concord, North Carolina. Neal D. Gray, PhD, LCMHC-S, is a professor and Chair of the School of Counseling and Human Services at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Correspondence can be emailed to Joshua D. Smith at jsmit643@uncc.edu. Joshua D. Smith, Neal D. Gray Lifetime Achievement in Counseling Series An Interview With Michael Ryan