story by Claire Miller
College of Education & Human Development Professor Catharina Chang has received two national awards for her leadership, advocacy and contributions to the counseling profession.
She has been named the 2020 recipient of Chi Sigma Iota’s Thomas J. Sweeney Professional Leadership Award and the American Counseling Association’s Thomas J. Sweeney Award for Visionary Leadership and Advocacy.
Catharina Chang
Both awards are named for Thomas J. Sweeney, professor emeritus of counselor education in the College of Education at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, who has served the counseling profession for more than 30 years.
“These awards are especially meaningful because Dr. Sweeney has been a personal mentor to me,” Chang said. “His lifetime contribution to shaping the counseling profession is outstanding and impressive and what’s most noteworthy is his care and attention to building relationships.”
Chang joined the CEHD faculty in 2000 and has published and presented in the areas of social justice and advocacy, multicultural counseling competence, privilege and oppression issues and counseling implications related to Asian American and Korean American clients. She is a professor in the college’s Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, serves as coordinator of the Chi Sigma Iota: Chi Epsilon chapter at Georgia State University and was the lead editor for the book, “Professional Counseling Excellence through Leadership and Advocacy.” Chang previously served as president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development and Chi Sigma Iota-International. She was the 2018 recipient of the American Counseling Association’s David K. Brooks, Jr. Distinguished Mentor Award and she is an American Counseling Association Fellow.