UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Julia Green Bryan, professor of education (counselor education) at Penn State, was recognized earlier this year by the American Counseling Association (ACA) with its Fellows Award. The award recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the profession across scientific achievement, training and leadership.
“It really feels like an honor especially when some fellows are former professors and mentors,” said Bryan.
In her nomination letter, Elizabeth Prosek, associate professor of education (counselor education), hailed Bryan as a prolific scholar in counseling, internationally known for her expertise on school-family-community partnerships. According to Prosek, Bryan’s extensive list of achievements includes building collaborative relationships across stakeholders to develop and implement prevention and intervention programs to address children’s needs; creating and expanding knowledge on the role school counselors have in addressing the disparities of educational achievement; and developing prevention and intervention programs that can improve academic, social, career and college success.
“Consistent across Dr. Bryan’s empirical research is an emphasis on children, adolescents and families from marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Prosek wrote in her letter. “She has built her career on using research as an agent for social change.”
Nkenji Clarke, a doctoral candidate in counselor education who has been advised by Bryan, said that she has been influenced by her mentor’s commitment to advocacy and social justice.
“It is through her teaching that I learned what leadership as a school counselor looks like and how to implement social justice-centered interventions for historically marginalized student populations,” Clarke said.
According to Prosek, Bryan is an “active leader in the counseling profession.” She is a participatory member in ACA, American Educational Research Association (AERA), American School Counselor Association (ASCA), Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) and two regions of ACES (Southern and North Atlantic). She has served on committees for ASCA, ACES and AERA. Bryan also is a member of editorial review boards for the profession’s most prestigious journals, such as the Journal of Counseling and Development, Counselor Education and Supervision, and Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development. Additionally, she has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for 15 counseling and multidisciplinary journals.
“Her depth of knowledge of research and vision for the gaps in empirical research are a significant contribution to the rigor of scholarship in the counseling profession,” Prosek wrote.
Bryan earned a doctorate in counseling and counselor education from the University of Maryland at College Park, a master of education from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a bachelor of science in economics with honors from the University of West Indies at Cave Hill in her native Barbados.
In recent months, Bryan has found herself returning to her roots, professionally speaking. She has focused her attention on helping to build a school counseling framework in Barbados that is responsive to the country’s cultural dynamics. Her work in that area was made possible by winning the 2020 Cotterill Leadership Enhancement Award, the Penn State College of Education’s annual accolade to recognize faculty or staff for exemplary performances and leadership efforts. The award includes resources for professionally related activities, including participation in conference, seminars and sabbaticals.
Last spring, Bryan conducted a two-day training session on school counseling in Barbados that focused on building school-community partnerships within a Barbadian context. In addition, she gave lectures at her alma mater, the University of West Indies at Cave Hill.
“It was wonderful to be able to give back and to meet with counselors I’d known,” said Bryan. “I was among a batch of the first school counselors in Barbados.”
In her discussions with the Barbados Ministry of Education, Bryan tried to discern how to build a model of school counseling that successfully transfers from an American to Barbadian context.
“School counseling is very American,” she said. “The models we’ve used in Barbados have been imported from the U.S. How do we develop a model that also matches Barbados’ needs and context?”
Bryan is currently planning further collaboration with the Ministry of Education and school counselors in Barbados to transform their school counseling model.
According to Bryan, much of her success is owed to the prestige and resources offered by the Penn State College of Education.
“I think that Penn State and the college have been instrumental in helping me advance in my career,” she said. “Other faculty here are considered top researchers (in their respective fields) — it gives me a lot of visibility.”
The most recent feather in Bryan’s hat was being awarded an Equity Leadership Fellowship from the College of Education, which will allow her to focus on onboarding, supporting and mentoring BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) faculty in the college.
“(The fellowship) will allow me to spend time with college leaders developing programs and practices that will allow BIPOC faculty to thrive here,” she said.