Hudson College Co-Authored Study Recognized as "Article of the Week" in Counselor Education and Supervision Journal

Dr. Dan Li, associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the OU Hudson College of Public Health and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Community and Society Transformation (ICAST) at OU, has been recognized for her research excellence with a featured publication in Counselor Education and Supervision (CE&S), the flagship journal for counselor educators and clinical supervisors.

The article, titled “Personal and Program Factors in Counselors-in-Training’s Professional Identity Development,” was selected as the journal’s Article of the Week—a distinction that highlights timely and impactful scholarship in the counseling field. Dr. Li co-authored the study alongside Dr. Byeolbee Um from the University of Oklahoma’s Norman campus and Dr. Jennifer Niles from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Their research examined how both personal traits (such as gender identity, perceived stress, and progression through a training program) and program-level factors (including clinical and coursework experiences, as well as the multicultural learning environment) influence the development of professional identity among counselors-in-training. Using an ecological systems framework, the authors explored the complex, layered influences shaping students' knowledge, attitudes, competencies, and engagement in the counseling profession.

“Counselors’ professional identity development is inseparable from their personal identity development and the broader contexts in which they are embedded,” said Dr. Li. “In this study, we aim to understand how factors from both immediate and distant environments, independently and collectively, influence professional identity development, with the goal of fostering a more supportive and growth-oriented environment for learning and training.”

The study draws on data from nearly 200 master’s-level students enrolled in CACREP-accredited counseling programs across the country, offering practical implications for counseling research and counselor education nationwide.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1002/ceas.12345