2025 TPC Outstanding Scholar Award Winner – Concept/Theory
Mykka L. Gabriel, Laura G. Dunson Caputo, and Jenny L. Cureton received the 2025 Outstanding Scholar Award for Concept/Theory for their article, “Broaching for Culturally Responsive Suicide Risk Assessment.”
Mykka L. Gabriel (she/her), LPCC-S, is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with a supervision designation. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Counselor Education and Supervision at Kent State University. Her research focuses on cultural responsiveness in suicide risk assessment, prevention, and postvention practices within the counseling profession and among counselors-in-training. She brings over a decade of clinical experience across diverse settings, including emergency crisis services, and has served with her local Suicide Prevention Coalition and its subcommittees.
Laura G. Dunson Caputo (she/her), PhD, LPCC-S, is an Assistant Professor of Practice at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Caputo also operates a private practice. As a counselor, Dr. Caputo practices using relational–cultural theory, narrative theory, existential theory, and diverse creative and somatic interventions. Dr. Caputo’s research interests include trauma-informed care; social determinants of mental health; creative interventions; and power dynamics in counseling, teaching, and supervision.
Jenny L. Cureton (she/her), PhD, LPCC (OH), LPC (CO), is Associate Professor at Kent State University (Kent, Ohio) and incoming Associate Professor of Counseling at Regis University (Denver, Colorado). Dr. Cureton’s primary areas of expertise are: suicide and other trauma/crisis, the intersection of career and personal development, and community-engaged change. Her experience providing individual and relationship counseling spans community, college/university, medical, and private practice settings.
Read more about the TPC scholarship awards here.
Sara E. Ellison, (she/her), PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is a part-time faculty member at the University of West Georgia and a clinical mental health counselor in private practice. Dr. Ellison has experience working in inpatient and outpatient settings and has specialized clinical training in IFS, EMDR, RO DBT, and working with trans and gender-diverse clients. Her scholarly work has appeared in The Professional Counselor, Teaching and Supervision in Counseling, and the Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision. Her research interests include trauma and resilience, nonsuicidal self-injury, disorders of overcontrol, and social justice in supervision.
Jill Meyer (she/her), PhD, LCPC, CRC, is a Professor and Director of Counselor Education & Forensic Rehabilitation at Auburn University, specializing in Rehabilitation Counseling. Previously, Dr. Meyer worked at the University of Missouri, Missouri Institute of Mental Health research division as research faculty and as the Grants Administrator. Prior to that she worked for a large nonprofit community rehabilitation agency as the Director of Vocational Evaluation and eventually as the Vice President of Community-based VR Services. In addition to being Director of Counselor Education, Dr. Meyer currently oversees the RSA-funded grants, including the Vocational Evaluation Forensic Certificate (VEFC) program, which is piloting the integration of AI into rehabilitation counseling curriculum. Dr. Meyer is also Co-Director of The DIRECT Lab – Disability, Identity, Rehabilitation Education, Counseling & Technology. The DIRECT Lab is a collaborative group that conducts research on disability identity, rehabilitation counseling and related technology. More specifically, the lab examines various factors influencing vocational constructs, independent living, career development, and quality of life among individuals with disabilities, particularly focusing on investigating the intersectionality of disability identity and other cultural identities, psychosocial adaptation to disability, disability biases, emerging adulthood and disability, employment and the use of technology (e.g., AI in counselor education) in rehabilitation counseling education and practice.
Julia Whisenhunt (she/her), PhD, NCC, LPC, CPCS, is a Professor of Counselor Education and Assistant Department Chair at the University of West Georgia. She holds licensure as a Professional Counselor (Georgia), and she is also a National Certified Counselor and a Certified Professional Counseling Supervisor (Georgia). Dr. Whisenhunt has instructed psychology and counseling courses since 2004. She is trained as an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training facilitator and is a Disaster Mental Health Volunteer. She specializes in the areas of suicide, self-injury, and crisis intervention. Dr. Whisenhunt coauthored the Crisis Intervention Ethics Casebook, which was published by the American Counseling Association, and the 9th edition of Crisis Intervention Strategies, which was published by Cengage. She remains active in her professional field through membership and service to various professional organizations such as Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International, the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, the Association for Humanistic Counseling, and the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Most recently, Dr. Whisenhunt served as the Chi Sigma Iota International President (2024–2025) and was elected in 2026 as a Director-at-Large for the American Counseling Association.
Jessica Meléndez Tyler (she/her), PhD, NCC, BC-TMH, LPC-S, is Associate Professor of the Practice and Program Director of the Human Development Counseling program at Vanderbilt University. Her clinical, teaching, and scholarly work focuses on individuals at risk, trauma, grief, perfectionism, relational resilience, and counselor development. A practicing clinician and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) trainer, Dr. Tyler’s scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Counseling & Development, The Professional Counselor, OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, and Teaching and Supervision in Counseling. Her work bridges clinical practice and community education, with an emphasis on resilience-informed, relational approaches to mental health, risk prevention, and counselor training.
Ashley Ascherl Pechek (she/her), PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC (CO), currently works as an associate professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania in the clinical mental health counseling graduate program. She has been a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado since 2010 and has worked with a variety of clientele, including children and adolescents, military families, and at-risk youth. Dr. Pechek earned her PhD in counselor education and supervision from Adams State University in 2018 and has been teaching in online CACREP-accredited programs for the last 10 years. Her research interests include online learning, creativity in counselor education, military families and veterans, self-care, and suicide assessment and intervention.
Kristin A. Vincenzes (she/her), PhD, NCC, ACS, BC-TMH, 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. Dr. Vincenzes has fully written two CACREP self-studies and has led her program through both initial accreditation and preparation for re-accreditation. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania as well as an Approved Clinical Supervisor, National Certified Counselor, and a Board Certified TeleMental Health Provider. She has 29 peer-reviewed publications, including both journal articles and book chapters, and has presented 53 times across different local, state, regional, and national venues. Her scholarship interests focus on trauma, the military, wellness for service professionals and leaders, and online education.
Kellie Forziat-Pytel (she/her), 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. Her specialty areas consist of prevention work, military, trauma, and grief and loss, and their impact on individuals, families, and the community.
Leandrea Romero-Lucero (she, her, hers), 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 holds a PhD in counselor education and supervision, has been licensed in the state of New Mexico as a mental health counselor since 2008, holds the Approved Clinical Supervisor and Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist certifications, and is an approved supervisor in New Mexico. 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.
Taylor J. Irvine (she/her), PhD, NCC, ACS, LMHC, is an Assistant Professor of clinical mental health counseling at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Irvine has clinical experience working in community mental health and residential eating disorder treatment settings. Her main clinical and research interests include couples and infidelity, eating disorders, and body image concerns. Dr. Irvine has presented and published on these topics nationally and internationally, spotlighting culturally responsive and evidence-based methods across counseling research, training, and practice domains. 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. She is also a past CSI Leadership Fellow and Emerging Leader for both the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling.
Adriana C. Labarta (she/her), PhD, NCC, ACS, LMHC, is an Assistant Professor of clinical mental health counseling at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Labarta has clinical experience working with diverse clients in residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, outpatient, and university counseling settings. Her primary clinical and research interests include eating disorders, body image concerns, multicultural counseling, and self-compassion. 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. She was previously selected as an Emerging Leader by the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling.
Michael T. Kalkbrenner
