Davis & Elkins College Assistant Professor of Psychology Judith Smith assumed the presidency of the American Mental Health Counselors Association during the organization’s annual national conference July 18-20 in Washington, D.C.
The AMHCA is a growing community of nearly 7,000 clinical mental health counselors with the mission of enhancing professional mental health counseling through advocacy, education and professional development.
In addition to serving as president-elect on the national board in 2012, Smith also is chair of the national conference. From September through March, she led the conference planning committee in selecting keynote speakers, choosing a theme, reviewing and selecting workshops and planning leadership training for the 2013 conference. Smith has written monthly articles about the conference for AMHCA’s magazine.
“While this year has been extremely busy and challenging, it has also been exciting and in many ways renewing,” Smith says.
“Resilience, Transformation & Advocacy” was the theme for this year’s conference with keynote speakers Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author of The New York Times bestseller “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Religion & Politics;” and Dr. William Brim, a clinical psychologist, associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and Deputy Director of the Center for Deployment Psychology.
Smith earned her Master of Science degree in Child Development & Family Relations from West Virginia University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion from Case Western Reserve University. She has completed additional doctoral studies in Counseling Psychology and Developmental Psychology at WVU. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and an Approved Licensed Professional Supervisor. In addition to her leadership with AMHCA, she served as president of the West Virginia Licensed Professional Counselors Association from 2005-2007 and as president of the West Virginia Association for Play Therapy from 1999-2003.
