About our authors Victoria E. Kress, Ph.D./LPCC-S (OH), NCC, CCMHC, is a Professor, a Counseling Clinic Director and the Director of the Clinical Mental Health and Addictions Counseling Programs at Youngstown State University. She also works as the Director of Advocacy for the National Board of Certified Counselors. She has over 20 years of clinical experience working in various settings, including community mental health centers, hospitals, residential treatment facilities, private practices, and college counseling centers. She has published over 120 refereed articles and book chapters, and she has coauthored 3 books on diagnosing/assessing and counseling youth and adults. She has been cited as a top contributing author to the Journal of Mental Health Counseling as well as the Journal of College Counseling, and she served as the Associate Editor of the Theory and Practice Sections of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling.Dr. Kress served two terms as a governor-appointed member of the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board and served as the Chair of the Counselor Professional Standards Committee. She also served as the ethics liaison for Ohio’s state regulatory board and presently serves as a consultant/expert witness for counselor ethics cases. CACREP honored her with the Martin Ritchie Award for Excellence in Advocacy. She also received the following American Counseling Association (ACA) awards: the Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person, the Distinguished Mentor Award, the Counselor Educator Advocacy Award, and the Government Relations Award. She has been the recipient of the following Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) awards: the Outstanding Mentor Award, the Robert Stripling Award for Excellence in Standards, and the Leadership Award. She has also received numerous Youngstown State University awards (e.g., Distinguished Scholar, Distinguished Public Service) as well as various Ohio Counseling Association awards, including the Research and Writing Award, the Legislative Advocacy Award, the Leadership Award and the Counselor of the Year Award. She is a past President of Chi Sigma Iota International and the Ohio Counseling Association and she is a past ACA Region Chair.Matthew J. Paylo, Ph.D./LPCC-S (OH), is an Associate Professor, Coordinator of the Student Affairs and College Counseling Program and Program Director of the Counseling Program at Youngstown State University. He has over 13 years of clinical experience in various settings, including community mental health centers, prisons, hospitals, adolescent residential treatment facilities and college counseling centers. Dr. Paylo is passionate about implementing evidence-based interventions in therapeutic relationships that highlight empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. He has presented and published extensively in the areas of diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders. Dr. Paylo recently coauthored a book on assessing, diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders from a strength-based perspective. In addition, he has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on trauma, evidence-based treatments, offender treatments, counseling adolescents, social justice counseling and the implementation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Dr. Paylo has received numerous teaching and research awards, including the Distinguished Professor of Teaching at Youngstown State University and the Research and Writing Award from the Ohio Counseling Association (OCA). In addition, Dr. Paylo is on his second term as a governor-appointed member of the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board and currently is serving as the Board Chair.Nicole A. Stargell, Ph.D., LPCA, LSC, NCC, is an Assistant Professor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) and serves as the Field Placement and Testing Coordinator for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling Programs. She also serves as the CFA of the Phi Sigma Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) and is a member of the UNCP Institutional Review Board. Dr. Stargell earned her dual master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and school counseling from the CACREP-accredited Youngstown State University in Ohio. She earned her doctoral degree in counseling and counselor education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Stargell is a member of the American Counseling Association Practice Brief Advisory Group, an Editorial Review Board Member for the Counseling Outcome Research & Evaluation Journal, and a Music Section Reviewer for the CSI International Counselors’ Bookshelf. She is chair of the Emerging Leaders Committee for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling and Co-chair of the Leadership Development Taskforce for the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. She is a member of the CSI International Counselor Community Engagement Committee, and she serves as an annual reviewer for the CSI International Research Grant Competition and International Award Competition.Dr. Stargell was the recipient of the 2013 American Counseling Association Courtland C. Lee Multicultural Excellence Scholarship Award, and she received the CSI International Outstanding Student Award at both the entry and doctoral levels. She has authored or coauthored 18 peer-reviewed articles, 6 book chapters, and 19 newsletter articles. Dr. Stargell has delivered 35 national/international, 8 regional, 19 state and 30 local counseling presentations. Her areas of counseling competence include diagnosis and treatment planning, multiculturalism, issues of grief and loss and counseling children and adolescents. She has served as a counselor in the school setting (as both a clinical mental health counselor and school counselor intern), outpatient/intensive outpatient setting, home-based setting and in a hospital/cancer center. Dr. Stargell is passionate about delivering quality mental health services to consumers and educating others about the most effective ways to support clients’ desired mental health goals.
