Salem State Professor Named Counselor Educator of the Year

SALEM, MA – The Massachusetts School Counselors Association awarded Salem State University Professor Laurie Dickstein-Fischer, PhD, the Counselor Educator of the Year award earlier this month.

The annual MASCA conference was held on April 4 in Boxborough. Dickstein-Fischer is an assistant professor and program director for the school-counseling program at Salem State University. Her research focuses on the intersection of social interaction and technology within the framework of, and informed by, social justice.

The award was given to Dickstein-Fischer for her outstanding contributions in teaching, research, and service and for making significant contributions to the school counseling field.

"Having my work and research recognized by MASCA is a great honor, however, I am most proud of the work that my graduate students do every day and the opportunity I have to guide them further in their practice of school counseling," said Dickstein-Fischer.

Dickstein-Fischer, along with Worchester Polytechnic Institute robotics engineering professor Gregory Fischer, developed the Penguin for Autism Behavioral Intervention (PABI), a robotic toy-like device designed to stimulate social responses that can potentially diagnose, measure, and improve a child's understanding and uses of social cues. Learn more about the PABI here.

Along with Dickstein-Fischer's award, 22 school counseling program graduate students attended the conference and presented on various topics. Their research was shared with informative and attractive poster displays on a variety of academic, career, and personal/social research initiatives pertaining to elementary, middle, and high school counselors, such as empowering English language Learners, decreasing chronic absenteeism, fostering career readiness, and supporting transgender students.

Image via SSU