The North Carolina School Counseling Association (NCSCA) has named College of Education professor Sejal Foxx its Counselor Educator of the Year.
Foxx, who leads the college’s School Counseling program, received tenure earlier in 2015 after only a year at UNC Charlotte. She currently teaches a variety of master’s and doctoral counseling courses.
NCSCA presents the award to recognize a counselor educator for outstanding accomplishments in teaching, mentoring and advising to prepare students for careers as effective counseling professionals.
“Dr. Foxx is an excellent teacher who values delivering quality instruction in the classroom, regardless of the format. She has developed an engaging, informative, and highly interactive teaching style that students embrace,” said Hank Harris, chair of the Counseling Department.
The honor comes just weeks after Foxx was invited to a White House convening to strengthen school counseling and college advising. She joined delegates from 35 states representing K-12, nonprofits, research interests, policymakers and other stakeholders in an effort to increase the number of traditionally underserved students succeeding in post-secondary education
Prior to starting a career in higher education in 2008, Foxx was an elementary and high school guidance counselor in Florida and North Carolina. She said these experiences provide a practical backdrop that shapes her approach to teaching and helps her find balance in the classroom.
“I can teach theory and then provide real and relevant experiences to demonstrate how that looks in real life. I am a believer that I can't ask my students to do something that I wasn't prepared to do myself.”
In a relatively brief academic career, Foxx has more than a dozen research publications to her name; currently, she is writing a book “School Counseling in the 21ST Century.” She has presented her work at national and international conferences, as well as in professional development seminars for local school systems.
A past president of the North Carolina Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, Foxx is a board member for the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Academic Programs.