LaShauna Dean, PhD, associate professor of special education and counseling in the College of Education at William Paterson University, received the NARACES 2020 Social Justice Award from the North Atlantic Region Association for Counselor Education and Supervision organization for her significant work on social justice and multicultural issues.
“Dr. Dean has done tremendous work in the areas of multicultural issues, including and specifically to microaggressions and working on a variety of trainings to help with diversity issues,” states the organization on its website.
In addition to conducting implicit bias training for the University’s faculty and staff, Dean performed many trainings throughout New Jersey and virtually on the topics of diversity and bias. She has worked with several school districts to help teachers and other school professionals identify personal bias that may affect their work with students. She also performed research with a colleague that focused on ways to improve cross cultural communication, which they presented at various conferences.
The award recognizes a counselor educator who has made significant contributions to the research and literature on social justice and/or multicultural issues, including work as a practitioner and being engaged in community-based social justice and advocacy issues, and infusing diversity and social action into counseling, counselor education, and supervision.
Dean has worked in the field of mental health counseling for more than seven years in a variety of roles. She has worked with clients as a counselor, substance abuse clinician, case manager, crisis intervention worker, and intake/assessment clinician.
NARACES, North Atlantic Region Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, (narces.org), encourages quality education and supervision of professional counselors who specialize in addictions counseling, career counseling, clinical mental health counseling, college student affairs counseling, K-12 school counseling and marital, couple and family counseling.