Counseling and Counselor Education
Clinical Assistant Professor of Counselor Education
North Carolina Central University

Regina Gavin Williams ‘16PHD serves as a clinical assistant professor of counselor education at North Carolina Central University, where she teaches master’s-level graduate students who are seeking degrees in clinical mental health counseling, school counseling and career counseling. Some of the courses she has taught include Practicum in Counseling, Vocational Theory and Career Development, and Multicultural and Gender Issues in Counseling.

In her role, she is also responsible for various service and administration duties within the School of Education, engaging in scholarship within her field and providing service to the university and local community. As a foster youth advocate, Williams’ research focuses on the career and college readiness and adult self-sufficiency of adolescents aging out of the foster care system; training foster caregivers; and adolescents’ post-secondary education and career decision-making — an interest that was inspired when she worked as a community clinician supporting children and adolescents in foster care.

Williams was recently recognized with the Chi Sigma Iota Distinguished Alumni Award.

Her Story

“The counseling and counselor education program allowed me to gain training experience as both a counseling instructor and clinical supervisor; two critical components that have helped me transition into the role of counseling faculty, particularly in a clinical faculty position, training students engaging in their practicum experience. In this regard, the program provided a supervision theory and research course which helped me to become familiar with a counseling supervision model I utilize with my students today. The program also provided a counseling supervision practicum course, which allowed me to supervise and instruct master’s students within their practicum experience. Additionally, the program provided a teaching internship course, where I served as a teaching assistant for the Gender Issues in Counseling course, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I utilized many of the readings and teachings from this course, along with what I learned in the Advanced Multicultural Counseling course, within the Multicultural and Gender Issues in Counseling course I taught at NC Central. Lastly, the research I engaged in and learned how to effectively conduct, for instance in the scholarly writing and research in counselor education courses, has sent me on a positive trajectory within a new role as scientist-practitioner.

One experience in the NC State College of Education that impacted me was when I created and organized, along with some amazing student leaders and staff, the Brothers United in Leadership Development (B.U.I.L.D.) Summit, a leadership program for high school males of color. In my tenure both working in the College of Education and as a doctoral student, I helped execute this program three times, bringing approximately 300 students in various counties to the college. It led to the creation of the BUILD Academy, which brought smaller groups of students back to campus to continue the work. Faculty within the college readily supported the program by serving as speakers and presenters. It was such a joy to see how the program impacted the participants, especially as I began to know the returners. I received an OIED [Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity] Diversity Mini Grant to provide more support for the program.”