2024 Vice President for Scientific Affairs Candidates

All candidates were asked to provide a brief statement, introducing themselves and answering the following question: 

How would your skills and vision help you contribute to and lead SCP’s efforts to center its new values, uproot anti-Black racism, and promote liberation, in SCP and beyond?

Laura Reid Marks, PhD

It is my distinct pleasure to be nominated for Vice President of Scientific Affairs for the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP). Since, I began my leadership experiences as a graduate student with the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) and Division 52 (International Psychology), I have been dedicated to reducing racial inequities. As a multiracial, heterosexual, cisgender Jamaican immigrant woman, I have devoted my career to antiracism, specifically by working to address health and career disparities in emerging adults of color. I am personally and professional dedicated to uprooting anti-Black racism and other forms of oppression through a simultaneously individual and structural lens. 

In the role of Vice President of Scientific Affairs, I would prioritize uprooting anti-Black racism by providing training opportunities for counseling psychologists in research and practice focused on applying for federal funding for transformative work. To be truly transformative, our work needs to shift from an individual to a structural lens. Hence, a key goal of mine would be to provide training opportunities centered on what a structural approach to change looks like and how it can be achieved. Since federal funds offer an avenue through which this work can be conducted on a large scale for a lasting impact, providing grant training opportunities for counseling psychologists at every career-level (i.e., graduate students and beyond) is one of my priorities. My significant experience in leadership and my work as a racial disparities’ researcher have prepared me well to lead these initiatives. As both an academic and advocate, my work focused on racial justice will facilitate my capacity to lead SCP in scientific endeavors that uproot anti-Black racism and other forms of oppression. I appreciate the opportunity to capitalize on my experiences, skills, and passions to continue SCP’s significant and ongoing efforts to uprooting anti-Black racism.

Watch Laura's Candidate Video HERE!

Matthew J. Miller, PhD

I am a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Loyola University Chicago where I direct the Race, Culture, and Health Equity Lab. Over the course of my career, I have served on five editorial boards, including the Journal of Counseling Psychology (2007-2016) and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2014-2019), and have been an associate editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology since 2017. I have also served as Co-PI or senior personnel on four National Science Foundation grants totaling over 5.6 million in costs. Although the aforementioned roles reflect experiences relevant for the position, I believe the unlearning of the research enterprise – what and whom we value, who we center and exclude – I have pursued over the past several years is my most meaningful qualification relevant for the SCP VP of Scientific Affairs.

I believe there are opportunities to increase the relevance and impact of counseling psychology scholarship in the real world. I believe that one way we can achieve this is by making counseling research relevant and accessible to communities and society. If elected, I am interested in exploring ways in which SCP can support member efforts to expand the ways in which scholarship is shared outside of academia. I am also interested in exploring ways SCP can support member efforts to engage in public scholarship that makes meaningful contributions – beyond the common metrics – in the real world and in communities that have been historically excluded and oppressed. I also believe that the research enterprise is one of the primary ways in which the field perpetuates oppression and harm and, if elected, I am interested building on prior SCP initiatives by exploring ways in which SCP can continue to support member efforts to identify and root out oppressive ideology and practice in research.

Watch Matthew's Candidate Video HERE!