Derald Wing Sue Award For Distinguished Contributions to Multicultural Counseling


This Award is named in honor of Professor Derald Wing Sue, a leader and pioneer of multicultural counseling in the Society of Counseling Psychology as well as the profession of Psychology. The Award, to be given annually, recognizes an individual counseling psychologist who has made career contributions to the advancement of the science, practice, or training in the field of multicultural counseling. The award and its associated monetary prize is voted annually by the Society/Division 17 Executive Board at its mid-year meeting. Announcement of the Award winner is made at the annual APA convention. The procedures to be followed in the nomination of candidates, selection of an Award winner, and presentation of the Award are detailed below. 

Award Amount: $1,000

Congratulations to the 2021 Award Recipient: Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.


CRITERIA:

  1. Derald Wing Sue Award for Distinguished Contributions to Multicultural Counseling was established to honor distinguished contributions to multicultural counseling.1   Recipients of the Award should have an established record of scientific or professional contributions to the research or practice of multicultural counseling.  Such contributions are typically made through publications of either research or theory or through documented professional practice in multicultural counseling. Contributions to science are typically made through publication of either research findings or theory that generates research.  Contributions to practice are typically evidence by the documented application of multicultural counseling theory and/or research to psychological and developmental issues. The populations served could be individuals, couples, groups, organizations, supervisees and/or trainees.  In either case, the contribution to multicultural counseling shall be substantial and significant so that it has made an impact on the field and practicing psychologists outside the state/region shall be aware of the individual's contributions.
    1. Multicultural counseling and therapy can be defined as a helping role and a process that uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and values of culturally diverse clients. It recognizes client identities to include individual, group, and universal dimensions; advocates the use of universal and culture-specific strategies and roles in the healing process; and balances the importance of individualism and collectivism in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of client and client systems. (Adapted from Derald Wing Sue and David Sue’s Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th edition, Wiley, 2015)
  2. The Award should be given to persons whose principal professional identification is as a Counseling Psychologist and are members of the Society/Division 17.
  3. The recipient must have received the doctorate degree more than 20 years prior to receiving the Award, i.e., the recipient must be mid-career or above. Current members of the Society/Division 17 Executive Board are not eligible during their term of office. 
  4. Though the Award ordinarily will be voted annually, the Executive Board may elect not to make an Award in any given year.

PROCEDURES

  1. A Call for Nominations for the Derald Wing Sue Award for Distinguished Contributions to Multicultural Counseling will appear in the fall issue of the Society/Division 17 Newsletter or the currently used publication medium. 
  2. Nominations for the Award are to be in the form of a letter (from self or other) that makes the nomination and discusses the significance of the nominee's contributions to the practice of Counseling Psychology. In total, nomination packets should include, (a) no more than three letters, one of which should be a letter of nomination (from self or other) and no more than two additional letters of support from psychologists;  all letters should directly address how the nominee meets the criteria for the specific award  (b) a copy of the nominee’s vita. 
  3. The Chair of the Awards and Recognition Committee (or the Chair’s designee) will be responsible for collecting nominations and for obtaining evaluations of the nominations from the Committee. Each reviewer will rate and then rank the nominee and send both ratings and rankings to the Chair (or the Chair’s designee) who will then compute mean ratings. Based on these mean ratings the Chair will submit a rank ordered list of nominees to the Society/Division 17 Executive Board prior to the mid-year meeting of that group.
  4. Election of the Award winner will be decided by written or verbal ballot at the mid-year meeting by majority vote of the voting members of the Executive Board of Society/Division 17 who are present. The Award winner will be notified by the President following this mid-year meeting but no public announcement of the winner will be made until the Society/Division’s business meeting at the APA Convention. The Chair of the Awards and Recognition Committee (or the Chair’s designee) will be responsible for collecting nominations for the . The VP for IA, the ICP co-chairs, and the ICP Section awards committee will serve as consultants for these two awards while honoring SCP’s Awards Committee independent process. 
  5. The Chair of the Awards and Recognition Committee will provide the winner’s name and contact information, social security number, and the name of the award won to the Society/Division 17 treasurer by June 1st. The treasurer will prepare the check and give it to the Society/Division 17 President for presentation at the Annual Business Meeting in August.
  6. After the APA Convention, an announcement of the winner will be published in the fall issue of the Society/Division 17 Newsletter or currently used publication medium, and The Counseling Psychologist
  7. The winner will be invited to submit an article to The Counseling Psychologist (12 months after the award) describing their research, practice or educational contributions to multicultural counseling. 

Note: SCP’s most recent strategic plan (2019-2024) includes goals such as elevating impact of counseling psychology and supporting counseling psychologists’ advocacy to promote client and community wellbeing, equity, and justice. Our current President Reynolds stated, “Every day we strive to build a more inclusive, just, and equitable profession and ensure that our work is centered in liberation and healing to dismantle oppression in all its forms, uplift all communities who are marginalized, erased, and harmed, and transform our policies, structures, and practices so that we may all one day be free.” This work is particularly important now given multiple pandemics experienced in recent years and our continued fight to support marginalized communities.
Therefore, we invite all nominations to address the ways your nominees strived to make this change. The submission materials should address how the nominee aligns with and/or applies counseling psychology values, particularly as it relates to counseling psychology’s focus on Liberation Anti-Black Racism, Advocacy and Engagement.