Director elected vice chair of international counseling board

ValaRay Irvin, director, Southern University, Baton Rouge Counseling Center, has been elected vice chair of the International Association of Counseling Services, Incorported’s (IACS) Board of Accreditation.

Irvin will be responsible for reviewing applications from university and college counseling centers who seek re-accreditation by the board. She will be required to send letters to applying institutions to inform them whether they will receive full re-accreditation, probational re- accreditation or provisional re-accreditation.

Irvin said the new position will give her the avenue “to try and get as many HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) as possible to re-think the significance of getting involved with the accreditation process.”

Irvin served on the IACS Board of Accreditation as a representative for the Southern Region for three years before she was elected vice chair in February. As a member of the southern region she was responsible for reviewing applications for re-accreditation and/or making on-site visits to schools that were up for re-accreditation. She then made recommendations to the vice chair.

There are 173 college and university counseling centers – 168 in the U.S. and 5 abroad - that are accredited by the IACS. The seven college and university counseling centers in Louisiana with IACS accreditations are Southern, LSU, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Tulane University, and the University of New Orleans.

Some of the other university counseling centers outside Louisiana that are accredited by IACS include: Georgia State University, George Washington University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, and the University of Florida. Florida A&M and South Carolina State are the only other HBCUs.

Irvin will serve as vice chair through 2008 and then she will become chair of the IACS board for one year.