Dear PACCA Colleagues:

Welcome to the Pennsylvania College Counseling Association (PACCA)!  PACCA is an Association for those persons in higher education to include colleges, universities, community and technical college settings whose professional identity is counseling and whose purpose is to foster student development.  Members of PACCA believe that college counseling is about developing the whole person and are invested in student success.

I would like to thank Donald Strano, Pennsylvania Counseling Association (PCA) President and PACCA Treasurer and David Wilson, PACCA Past-President as we completed our first year of re-organization and re-establishment in 2007-2008.  As I assume the President’s role, both Don and David will continue to serve on the PACCA Executive Committee.  Thank you both for your hard work, leadership and service.

I am very excited about the upcoming year for PACCA! This year, the Executive Committee will be reviewing and updating the Bylaws for the Association, that will be presented to the membership for consideration.  The Executive Committee will be coordinating a membership drive to recruit and increase college mental health practitioners including counselors, career counselors, student affairs professionals, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, and social workers, to name a few, within our Association.  We will also explore collaborative relationships with other professional organizations as a resource for increasing membership.

As mental health professionals on college and university campuses, we all must work together to provide effective comprehensive counseling services for our diverse student populations.  Thus, the theme for PACCA this year is Multicultural Issues in College Counseling. This theme will be reflected in two major events this year.  First, as part of PCA’s 40^th Annual Conference at Penn State University, PACCA will be offering a College Counseling Academy where participants can receive a certificate for completing a college-counseling track of education sessions. For more information on the conference, please click on the PCA link posted on our website.  For more information about the PACCA Conference Academy, please click on the Conference Academy link posted on our website.  

Additionally, PACCA will be sponsoring a spring workshop where the presenters will focus on multicultural issues in college counseling.  Information about the spring workshop will be posted here on our website as it becomes available.

As your incoming President, I look forward to working with all of you this year.  Please feel free to contact me, or any members of the Executive Committee, if you have any questions regarding PACCA.

Taunya Marie Tinsley, Ph.D., NCC, LPC

PACCA President