Faculty Member Named Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development
Dr. Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers is now the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD), a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal that is a quarterly journal of the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development, a member association of the American Counseling Association. JMCD is ranked 3rd among the top 5 most nominated multicultural psychology journals and serves as a critical avenue for scholarship focused on racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic concerns.
Dr. Clauss-Ehlers’ vision for the journal features three main objectives. The first is a continued focus on practice-based multicultural process and outcome research which incorporates the role of bilingualism in counseling process and outcome including an exploration of the dynamics of code switching or speaking different languages within varying contexts in the counseling relationship. This also touches upon the role that stigma plays in diverse communities and its impact on the access and utilization of services, and a social justice focus that explores the role of advocacy for individuals from diverse backgrounds and at varying stages of development.
The second objective is a broadly defined focus on multicultural counseling competencies which features exploring practice and training models that promote the development of multicultural competence among trainees, supervisors, and practitioners. This area also includes an examination of the role of language and diverse linguistic contexts as an aspect of multicultural competence or the role of interpreters, counselor management of bilingual contexts.
For her third objective, Dr. Clauss-Ehlers plans to focus on racial, ethnic, and cultural concerns. This critical area is the focus of JMCD scholarship and addresses variables such as race, culture, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ability, acculturation, and social class. The journal will further examine how these variables play out between individual and reference group identities. Also within this focus is observing immigration experiences among diverse communities, understanding how a context of oppression influences contemporary human interaction such as bullying and domestic violence, and understanding manifestations of trauma and resilience from a cross-cultural perspective.
Dr. Clauss-Ehlers hopes that “The vision and scope I bring to JMCD builds upon the excellent work and contribution the journal has made thus far as a leader in multicultural scholarship,” Her experienced background within the areas of cultural resilience, culturally competent services, and systems that promote developmental competence includes writing books and articles such as Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children (co-edited with Dr. Mark Weist, Kluwer Academic Publishers/now Springer, 2004), and Diversity Training for Classroom Teaching: A Manual for Students and Educators (Springer, 2006). She is also the editor for Encyclopedia for Cross-Cultural School Psychology (Springer, 2010).
Dr. Clauss-Ehlers’ appointment began August 1, 2011 and will run through July 31, 2014.