Rawn Boulden Joining College of Education as Assistant Professor in Counselor Education 

Rawn Boulden will join NC State’s College of Education as an assistant professor of counseling and counselor education, beginning Aug. 16, 2024. Currently, Boulden is an assistant professor of school counseling at West Virginia University (WVU). Before becoming an assistant professor at WVU, Boulden was a school counselor in Virginia. He also provides outpatient counseling services to youth and adolescents in the Greater Morgantown, West Virginia, region.

“I am very excited to join the counseling program at NC State. I look forward to contributing to the counseling program’s longstanding tradition of excellence and embodiment of the land-grant mission,” Boulden said. 

Boulden’s research interests include culturally-sustaining practices, rural school counseling, youth mental health, counselor education and psychometric research. He is also interested in research examining how school-based mental health professionals (e.g., school counselors, school social workers) can collaborate to advance youth mental health and well-being. While at WVU, he has secured more than $5.6 million in federal grants as principal investigator  addressing youth mental health disparities in West Virginia. 

At WVU, he received the 2023 College of Applied Human Sciences Outstanding Researcher Award and 2023 WVU Values Coin Award in recognition of his research that aligns with WVU’s land-grant mission. 

Boulden is a nationally-certified counselor (NCC) and school counselor (NCSC), fully-certified Youth Mental Health First Aid and QPR instructor, and a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in West Virginia. 

He earned his Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from Old Dominion University. In 2021, he was selected as an editorial fellow with the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Additionally,, in 2023, he was appointed to the Evidence-Based School Counseling Conference’s Advisory Council. His research has been published in prominent journals, such as The Rural Educator and Professional School Counseling.