| COUNSELING,
REHABILITATION, AND STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
First
Rehabilitation Counseling Program West of the Mississippi
Celebrates 50 Years
Rehabilitation Faculty from L: Dennis Maki, Vilia Tarvydas, John Wadsworth, Noel Estrada-Hernandez, Dennis Harper, and Jodi Saunders |
It’s been 50 illustrious
years since Professor John
Muthard established the Rehabilitation
Counseling Program. Current faculty members are celebrating
their program’s special achievements and carrying on
the proud tradition.
Iowa’s was the first
graduate program in rehabilitation counseling west of the
Mississippi River. It also boasted the authors of the first
role and function studies of rehabilitation counselors—Muthard
and Paul Salomone
(MA ’62, PhD ’68) collaborated to begin the line
of research that defines the profession.
The program celebrates Marceline
Jaques (MA ’46, PhD ’59)
as the first woman in the nation to receive a doctoral degree
in Rehabilitation Counselor Education.
C. Esco
Obermann (BA ’27, MA
’31, PhD ’38) chaired the National Rehabilitation
Counseling Association’s Ethics Committee, which wrote
the profession’s first code of ethics in 1968. He also
wrote the definitive text on the history of the profession,
A History of Vocational Rehabilitation in America,
in 1967.
Since its founding, the Rehabilitation
Counseling program has produced more than 50 doctoral degrees
and hundreds of master’s degree graduates.
It continues its proud history
of firsts in the field. The program is home to the first student
chapter of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association
(ARCA), formed in 2003.
The program continually ranks
among the nation’s best; it received the 1997 President’s
Award for Exemplary Education Program of ARCA and has ranked
third in the nation among graduate programs in rehabilitation
by U.S.News & World Report since 2000. The Chronicle
of Higher Education ranked the program third in the nation
in terms of faculty productivity.
Current faculty members continue
the work started by program founders. Professor Vilia
Tarvydas chaired the committee
that created the first unified Code of Professional Ethics
for Rehabilitation Counselors in 1992, and its revisions in
2001 and 2007. As one of The American Association of State
Counseling Boards founding members, she is the first rehabilitation
counselor to be elected president elect of the organization.
Faculty members also continue
to write noted texts. Professor Dennis
R. Maki’s Rehabilitation
Counseling: Profession and Practice offers comprehensive,
fundamental information about the field. Associate Professor
Jodi Saunders
penned Case Management for Rehabilitation Health Professionals,
while Tarvydas published Counseling Ethics and Decision-Making.
Tarvydas said she’s
also proud of the long history of faculty and graduates holding
leadership positions in professional organizations.
“The record we have
of providing leadership to the rehabilitation counseling profession
is unequaled by other programs,” she said. “Our
faculty, graduates, and students have been presidents and
chairs of the major professional organizations and credentialing
bodies over the years in most impressive numbers. As a result,
we are seen as a locus of leadership and innovation in the
field.”
Sharing
Sport, Empowering Children
When
Associate Professor Deb
Liddell visited a Zimbabwean
village this fall, she brought with her the gift of
soccer.
Liddell visited Zimbabwe through
the Berkana Institute, which endeavors to put leaders
together to solve problems, along with 12 other North
Americans. The Berkana Institute asked each of the travelers
to think of something they could bring to contribute
to the communities they would visit.
Liddell, a mother of two soccer
players, thought she could bring equipment to help children
in the Kufunda village create a team of their own.
“I think sports are an
incredible way to empower the bodies and minds of young
people,” she said.
Liddell’s daughter, Gina
Liddell-Westefeld, plays with the Iowa City Alliance
Soccer Club. With the club’s support, Liddell
was able to collect 85 pairs of cleats and 35 uniforms.
She then collaborated with
Passback, an organization that brings surplus soccer
equipment to needy communities. Passback shipped four
boxes of shoes for Liddell. She brought the uniforms
along herself.
The shoes arrived one week
before Liddell and her group reached Kufunda. Liddell
said that by the time they arrived, the children were
already working to clear a cornfield for a space to
play.
“It was a joyful day
for all of us, in a place that could use a little joy,”
she said. “They were all in their uniforms, all
in their cleats, and it was pretty cool.” |
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