Faculty and Student Achievements
In April 2022, the Counseling Program started a page for faculty and student achievements.
Moving forward, any professor or student who achieves something extraordinary can
be highlighted for their accomplishment here. We look forward to this list growing
in the coming years!
Faculty Achievements
Congratulations to Dr. Poppy Moon as she presented at the 2025 ACA School-Based Professionals
Summit on January 31st.
Please help me congratulate Dr. Debbie Grant in hosting the 59th Annual Conference
for the Alabama Counseling Association. Dr. Grant is the president of the Alabama
Counseling Association and we thank her for her leadership in the Counseling Profession!
You can read her "Welcome from the President" at the link below.
Dr. Poppy Moon presented at the 2024 Association for Creativity in Counseling Virtual
Conference titled Creative Narratives in Supervision: Recharging Counselor Growth through Storytelling. Congratulations Dr. Moon!!
Dr. Michelle Dobson and Dr. Tonya Elliott presented their poster board at the 2024
SACES conference titled Re-evaluating Cultural Narratives in Counselor Education Programs. Congratulations to you both!!
Dr. Poppy Moon and Katie Fournet presented at the 2024 Humanistic Counseling Association
virtual conference. Their presentation was titled Brushing Away Barriers: Art Therapy for Teens. Congratulations Poppy and Katie!!
Dr. Poppy Moon and Meredith Wilson presented at the 2024 Pennsylvania School Counseling
Association virtual conference in 2024. Their presentation title was Escape Rooms: Can You Find Your Way Out? Congratulations Poppy and Meredith!!
Dr. Janys Murphy Rising presented at the Humanistic Counseling Association virtual
conference in 2024. Her presentation title was Providing Counselors-in-Training Access to Weight Bias Curriculum. Congratulations Janys!!
Dr. Poppy Moon gave two presentations at the fall 2023 Alabama Counseling Association
conference. The titles of her presentations are Escape Rooms: Can You Find Your Way Out? and What is the Bravest Thing You Ever Said? Dr. Moon would like to thank Amalia Cisneros for her contributions toward these presentations.
Dr. Thomas Foster, Kristie Serrano, and Sarah Ilgenfritz Parks presented at the fall
2023 Florida Counseling Association conference titled Building Resilience Using a Synthesized, Nonlinear Model of Grief.
Dr. Dupre presented at the 2022 Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
conference in Baltimore, MD. The title of her presentation is Fighting Endangerment: Race, Gender, and Power’s Affect on Female Faculty Retention.
In April of 2022, Dr. Foster published an article with three counseling students titled
Conceptualizing Traumatic Loss During and After COVID-19 in the
Journal of Counseling Practice, the journal for the Ohio Counseling Association.
Click here to view the article.
In 2019, Dr. Dupre earned the credential Registered Play Therapist with a Supervisor
endorsement (RPT-S) through the Association of Play Therapy.
Student Achievements
This year, a large group of counseling students at ULM attended the 2024 ACA Conference
in New Orleans. They met up with Dr. Dupre during the conference and were able to
attend several presentations. Thank you for your involvement and committment to the
counseling profession!
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This year at the 2023 Louisiana Counseling Association conference, Brooke Gaspard
Mize led the Louisiana Association of Counseling Graduate Students General and Executive Board
meetings as LACGS President. Emily Ruth, Ashlyn Dupree, and Sarah Meche also served on the LACGS Board and attended
both meetings. Thank you all for representing the Counseling Program at ULM and for
your leadership in the profession!
Congratulations to Brooke Gaspard Mize as she was nominated for the LCA Graduate Student Award and the LCA Advocacy Award this year
at the 2023 LCA conference. These are two very notable accomplishments!
Congratulations to Emily Ruth for being awarded the 2023 Gloria Bockrath Scholarship
through the LAMHC division. Emily was also nominated for the LCA Graduate Student
Award. Great job, Emily!
Please congratulate Kristie Serrano on a successful presentation at the 2023 Florida
Counseling Association in September. Her presentation is titled An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treating Chronic Pelvic Pain and PTSD. Sarah Ilgenfritz Parks and Dr. Thomas Foster served as co-presenters.
Please congratulate Sarah Ilgenfritz Parks on her successful poster board presentation
at the 2023 Florida Counseling Association in September. Her poster board presentation
is titled Helping Midlife Women Grieve Lost Opportunities Using Gestalt Therapy. Kristie Serrano and Dr. Foster will serve as co-presenters.
In September of 2022, Brooke Gaspard was announced as the Louisiana Association of
Counseling Graduate Students President-Elect for the 2023-2024 year. Congratulations
on your impressive appointment!
The ULM Counseling Fall 2021 Cohort officially comprises over 75% of the newly elected
2023-2024 LACGS Executive Board! The following ULM Counseling Students will serve
for the 2023-2024 term:
Secretary: Sarah Meche
Public Relations Coordinator: Ashlyn Dupree
North Louisiana Regional Representative: Emily Ruth
Central Louisiana Regional Representative: Rechelle Rawls
South Louisiana Regional Representative: Devin Grantham
Greater Baton Rouge Louisiana Regional Representative: Kristi Zimmerman
In July of 2022, Loraine Hill published her manuscript titled Religiosity and psychological health: Is there a correlation? in the SN Social Sciences
journal, see the reference below. Congratulations on your success, Loraine!
Hill, T. L. (2022) Religiosity and psychological health: Is there a correlation? SN Social Sciences, 2 (138). doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00435-3
In April of 2022, Lisa Marie Smith, Lyndsay Mathews, and Kayla Gros published an article
with Dr. Foster titled Conceptualizing Traumatic Loss During and After COVID-19 in
the Journal of Counseling Practice. Click here to view the article.
On March 31, 2022, Rebecca Landry and Joe Roberts presented on the topics of anxiety,
depression, imposter syndrome, and ways to cope as a graduate student to a class of
30 Speech/Language Pathology students. Congratulations on a job well done!!
Counseling