Developing & Managing Your School Guidance & Counseling Programs

Norman C. Gysbers is a Curators’ Professor in the Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology at the University of Missouri.  He received his BA from Hope College, Holland, Michigan, in 1954.  He was a teacher in the Muskegon Heights Michigan School District (1954–1956) and served in the U.S. Army Artillery (1956–1958).  He received his MA (1959) and PhD (1963) from the University of Michigan.  He joined the faculty of the College of Education, University of Missouri, in 1963 as an assistant professor. In addition to his duties as an assistant professor, he also served as the licensed school counselor at the University Laboratory School until 1970.   

He was awarded a Franqui Professorship from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, and lectured there in February 1984.  He was a visiting scholar at the University of Hong Kong in May 2000, 2002, and 2004 and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in January 2001; a Scholar in Residence at the University of British Columbia in July–August 2000; and a Visiting Scholar at National Taiwan Normal University in January 2011. 

His research and teaching interests are in career development, career counseling, and school guidance and counseling program development, management, and evaluation.  He is author of 90 articles, 38 chapters in published books, 15 monographs, and 22 books, one of which was translated into Italian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.  

He has received many awards, most notably the National Career Development Association’s Eminent Career Award in 1989, the American School Counselor Association’s Mary Gehrke Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2002, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004, the Faculty/Alumni Award from the University of Missouri in 1997, and the Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Missouri in 2008. 

Gysbers was editor of The Career Development Quarterly from 1962 to 1970; president of the National Career Development Association, 1972–1973; president of the American Counseling Association, 1977–1978; and vice president of the Association of Career and Technical Education, 1979–1982.  He was the editor of The Journal of Career Development from 1978 until 2006.   

Patricia Henderson is a former director of guidance at the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. She received her AB in English from Mount Holyoke College in 1962, her MA in guidance from California State University, San Jose, in 1967, and her EdD in educational leadership from Nova University in 1986. She is certified as a school counselor and midmanagement administrator by California and Texas. She has been a teacher, counselor, and administrator in public schools. She has been an adjunct professor at California State University, Fullerton; California State University, Long Beach; Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio; and the University of Texas at San Antonio and is currently at Texas A&M University—San Antonio.  

Henderson consults with school districts and has conducted workshops at numerous professional meetings. Her professional interests are in school guidance and counseling; program development, management, implementation, evaluation, and improvement; enhancing roles of school counselors through supervision, staff leadership, and meaningful school counselor performance evaluation; creating systemic change through collaborative program development; and counselor supervision. She and Dr. Gysbers have also coauthored Leading and Managing Your School Guidance Program Staff (1998), Comprehensive Guidance Programs That Work—II (1997), and Implementing Comprehensive School Guidance Programs: Critical Issues and Successful Responses (2002). She wrote “The Theory Behind the ASCA National Model,” included in The ASCA National Model (2nd ed.). She is coauthor with Larry Golden of Case Studies in School Counseling (2007). She is the author of The New Handbook of Administrative Supervision in Counseling (2009). She has authored or coauthored 30 articles or chapters. She wrote The Comprehensive Guidance Program for Texas Public Schools: A Guide for Program Development, Pre-K–12th Grade (1990, 2004, in press) under the auspices of the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Counseling Association and Guidelines for Developing Comprehensive Guidance Programs in California Public Schools (1981) with D. Hays and L. Steinberg. 

She has received awards from professional associations for her writing, research, and contributions to professional development and recognition as an outstanding supervisor at the state and national levels. She received the Texas Association for Counseling and Development Presidential Award in 1990, an Honorary Service Award from the California State PTA in 1978, and Lifetime Membership in the Texas PTA in 1999. She received the William Truax Award from the Texas Counseling Association in 2005, the Mary E. Gehrke Lifetime Achievement Award from the American School Counselor Association in 2006, and the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. 

Henderson has been a member or chair of numerous committees and held leadership positions within the California Counseling Association, Texas Counseling Association, American School Counselor Association, Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and American Counseling Association. She has been president of the Texas Counseling Association (1992–1993), Texas Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (1988–1989), and Texas Career Development Association (1995–1996).