Action-Oriented Counseling: Developing Mental Health Empowerment Programs for Black Men

Dr. Courtland C. Lee has attained international recognition as an expert in the field of counseling. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of seven books on multicultural counseling and two books on counseling and social justice. He is also the author of three books on counseling Black males. In addition, he has published numerous book chapters and articles on counseling across cultures. Dr. Lee is a Past President and Fellow of the American Counseling Association. He is also a Past President and Fellow of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. In addition, he is a Past President of the International Association for Counselling. He is also a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the only American who has received this honor. Dr. Lee is the former editor of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and the Journal of African American Men. He has served on the editorial board of the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. He has also served as a Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Counseling and Development.

S. Kent Butler, Jr. is a professor of counselor education in the Department of Counselor Education and School Psychology. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with a concentration in Counseling Psychology, from the University of Connecticut. He is a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) and Nationally Certified School Counselor (NCSC). Dr. Butler presently serves as President of the American Counseling Association (2021-2022) and is an ACA Fellow. Dr. Butler formerly served the University of Central Florida as the Interim Chief Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Officer and is a National Association of Chief Diversity Officer in Higher Education Fellow (2020-2021). In March of 2020, he was selected as a Fellow within the National Association of Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education’s Chief Diversity Officer Fellows Program (NADOHE-CDOFP). He is a 2020 – 2021 cohort (C-7) member. The professional leadership program mentors new and early career Chief Diversity Officers. Dr. Butler was also recently promoted to Professor of Counselor Education at the University of Central Florida and has served as a Faculty Fellow for Inclusive Excellence within the Office of the Provost. Dr. Butler presently serves as faculty advisor to CHI SIGMA IOTA International Honor Society (CSI), the Counselor Education Doctoral Student Organization (CEDSO), Project for Haiti Knights, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He served as the Principal Investigator, for The High-Risk Delinquent and Dependent Child Educational Research Project: Situational Environmental Circumstances Mentoring Program (SEC), which was a partnership between the University of Central Florida and several Florida universities. This grant opportunity has transitioned into the UCF Young Knights Mentoring Project a program that supports students at Hungerford Elementary School in Eatonville, FL. Also on the national level, Dr. Butler has served the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) as the 2011 – 2012 President and ACA Governing Council Representative (2015 – 2018). He is a proud member of AMCD’s Multicultural Counseling Competencies Revisions Committee which produced the Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC). His research and academic interests lie in the areas of Multicultural and International Counseling, Social Justice, Mentoring, Counseling work as it relates specifically to African American males, Group Counseling, School Counseling, and Multicultural Supervision.