Sheperis Receives Distinguished Professional Service Award from American Counseling Association

Sheperis Receives Distinguished Professional Service Award from American Counseling Association

KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Dr. Carl Sheperis '89, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies at Kutztown University, has been named the 2026 winner of the Arthur A. Hitchcock Distinguished Professional Service Award from the American Counseling Association (ACA). The award was presented at the association's annual conference in Columbus, Ohio.

The award recognizes exceptional service to the counseling profession and celebrates leaders whose work strengthens the field, advances its mission and inspires future generations of counselors.

The Hitchcock Distinguished Professional Service Award honors outstanding service by an ACA member at the local, state or national level in addressing critical issues within the counseling profession and in stimulating ongoing service that promotes the well-being and advancement of the field. For this award, service is defined as work performed primarily for the benefit of the profession itself - driven not by personal gain, but by commitment to collective progress and professional responsibility. Recipients of this award demonstrate service that:

• Promotes the counseling profession in meaningful and visible ways.
• Produces widespread and lasting impact rather than limited or localized effects.
• Focuses primarily on advancing the counseling profession.
• Aligns with the areas of interest of one or more ACA divisions or organizational affiliates.

Sheperis has served at KU since May 2023. He provides strategic vision and leadership for KU's graduate and extended learning.

A native of Northeast Pennsylvania, Sheperis attended KU as a first-generation college student and graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He earned a Master of Science in education from Duquesne in 1994 and a Ph.D. in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Florida in 2001.

Sheperis has visited more than 30 countries to serve as an envoy for professional counseling, has more than 100 professional publications and served as a media expert for counseling-related issues. He has held several professional leadership positions in counseling. He served as president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) and as associate editor for the Journal of Counseling and Development. He has worked with the ACA as the chair of the Research and Knowledge Committee and has served as the editor of the Journal of Counseling Research and Practice.

In addition to counseling, Sheperis served on an advisory board to the Health Resources Services Administration and currently serves as a member of the Global Forum on Innovations in Health Professional Education for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. He is an author of several textbooks including Research in Counseling, Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods; Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Diagnosing and Treating Children and Adolescents; Assessment for Counselors and Helping Professionals; Online Counselor Education: A Student Guide; and The Peace Train. He also has published chapters in various textbooks, academic journal articles and reference volumes.