Clinical Mental Health Counseling Faculty Present at Conference

Critical Race Theory as an image of Dr. Ernie Zullo and Dr. Devona Stalnaker-Shofner Ethical Approach to Decentering Whiteness in Counseling Theory and Practice with an image ofDr. Devona Stalnaker-Shofner, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, and Dr. Ernie Zullo, Assistant Professor in New England’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program presented at the 7th Annual Law and Ethics in Counseling Conference held in New Orleans, LA on February 8 – 11, 2022. This annual national refereed professional conference brought together counselor educators, counseling graduate students, and counseling practitioners to review the latest trends and developments in the areas of law and ethics in counseling.

Their presentation was entitled, “Critical Race Theory as an Ethical Approach to Decentering Whiteness in Counseling Theory and Practice.” This presentation discussed Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an approach to address race, racism, power, and privilege in counseling practices and systems that may work to silence the voices of historically marginalized populations. In their presentation, they identified the key tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and ways to ethically incorporate CRT into counselor education curricula to effectively teach students about advocacy, activism, and multicultural competence.