Accomplishments of 2006
Accomplishments of the National Institute for Multicultural Competence (NIMC)
In 2006
Submitted by
Michael D’Andrea, NIMC Executive Director
1. January 2006 – The NIMC’s National Tour to Promote Multicultural Competence and Social Justice went to the University of Utah. Over 300 students, faculty members, administrators, and community activists participated in a day-long series of training and consultation services offered by the NIMC. Thanks go out to NIMC members Dr. Carla Reyes, Kevin Laska, and Jonathoan Ravino for participating in the planning and coordination of this leg of the national tour to Promote Multicultural Competence and Social Justice.
2. February – Under the leadership of Lewis Schlosser (Seton Hall University), the NIMC was able to continue the traditional of organizing town hall meetings that are designed to discuss the multicultural counseling competencies at the 2006 Multicultural Roundtable. As most of you know this NIMC intervention is designed to get individuals to commitment to take action to begin to develop a specific competency that they think needs to be developed during the next 60 days. Madonna Constantine (Teachers College at Columbia University) has graciously supported this project as annual happening at the Multicultural Roundtable Conference. Presenters participating in this event included NIMC members Rebecca Toporek, Judy Lewis and founding NIMC leaders Patricia Arredondo and Thomas Parham.
3. March 2006 – NIMC Board meeting at the annual meeting of the American Counseling Association (ACA). A number of convention presentations were made NIMC members at the ACA Convention including a major presentation made by Judy Daniels, Sherlon Brown, Rebecca Toporek, Allen Ivey, Angela Coker, and Michael D’Andrea entitled Describing exemplary practices in promoting multicultural counseling and advocacy competence: Research supported endeavors in Montreal, Canada.
4. April 2006 – The NIMC’s National Tour to Promote Multicultural Competence and Social Justice went to Pennsylvania where over 200 members of the Pennsylvania Counseling Association and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association participated in a day long series of professional development training services. NIMC Board members, Kelley and Mark Kenney are responsible for facilitating this professional project as a joint endeavor with counselors and psychologists in Pennsylvania (no easy task!!). Kelley Kenney outlines the strategies that were involved in organizing this historical joint venture with the professional counseling and psychology organizations in Pennsylvania in a September 2005 publication entitled “Counselors, psychologists working together to promote multicultural competence” (See September 2005 publication in the Diversity Column in Counseling Today).
5. June 2006 – Initiating the NIMC Giving Back to the Community Committee. This committee is designed to initiate the planning and implementation of the second “Giving back to the Community Project” at the 2007 Convention in Detroit, Michigan. NIMC committee members include: Hugh Crethar, Judy Daniels, Judy Lewis, Rebecca Toporek, Dana Comstock, Kadijat Quadri, Raymond Shorter, Mike Chaney, Thomas Scofield, Rita Chung, Frederick Bemak, Ann Chapman, Edil Torres, Beverley O’Bryant, and Elizabeth Foster.
6. July – October: NIMC leaders Carlos Zalaquett, Elizabeth Foster, and Brian Kajiyama worked diligently in the production and updating of our two NIMC websites. Please take time to look at the wonderful accomplishments these colleagues has achieved in completing the production and updating of our websites by going to http://www.coedu.usf.edu/zalaquett/nimc/nimc.html and
www.nimcpathways.org
www.nimcpathways.org
7. July – ongoing: The initiation of the NIMC Student Mentoring and Early Career Leadership Development Training Project: This project involves providing monthly professional development services via the NIMC Talking Community cyber system almost monthly. Beginning in July 2006 more than 60 students and other professionals have participated in this new NIMC sponsored event. You can access addition information regarding this NIMC sponsored project by going to our websites at http://www.coedu.usf.edu/zalaquett/nimc/nimc.html and
www.nimcpathways.org
www.nimcpathways.org
8. August - NIMC Board Meeting at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as numerous presentations by various NIMC members during the 2006 APA convention in New Orleans.
9. August – The Asian American Psychological Association presented the NIMC with its annual Leadership award at the AAPA Conference reception in New Orleans.
10. August – December: The NIMC CACREP Standards Revisions Project. This project was designed to have NIMC members provide their suggestions for changes in the new (2008) CACREP standards after reviewing the recommendations made by the NIMC CACREP Revision Standards Committee. Committee member include Drs. Sherlon Brown (Bowling Green University), Mike Chaney (Oakland University), Judy Daniels (University of Hawaii), and Michael D’Andrea (University of Hawaii). You can access the recommendations made by the NIMC CACREP Standards Revision Committee by going to our website at www.nimcpathways.org
11. August, September, October and December - Dr. Dana Comstock (St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas) worked with Dr. Judy Daniels and Michael D’Andrea in publishing a special four-part series of articles in the ACA’s Counseling Today related to Relational Cultural Theory (RCT). We are grateful to Dr. Comstock for sharing her expertise on RCT with the more than 41,000 readers of Counseling Today and the letters that numerous readers sent us expressing their thanks for learning about this new theoretical framework.
