Featuring Dr. Charmaine Conner
Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Roosevelt University
With a Response by Dr. Delishia Pittman
Associate Professor of Counseling, GSEHD
After protests advocating for racial equality erupted across the United States in summer 2020, the topic of antiracism gained more prominence—with it becoming the subject of many discussions on social media, in workplaces and among friends.
But what exactly does antiracism mean? How can we identify racism and actively oppose it? That was the topic of the third annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture sponsored by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) at George Washington University.
Read the full story in GW Today >
Watch the Recording of the Event:
About the Lecture:
Antiracism, the process of identifying and opposing racism (Kendi, 2019), has been a hot topic in society at large as well as the counseling profession. The current sociocultural and political climate has emphasized the need for people to engage in antiracist practices. Counselors, counselors-in-training, and counselor educators have been called to utilize antiracist practices in their work with clients (Ratts et al., 2016). While some may have been prepared to do so, others may have felt confused about where to begin.
Dr. Charmaine Conner developed a research study to help counselor education students: (1) increase their knowledge regarding antiracist counseling practices, (2) identify biases and areas of growth related to racism, and (3) commit to engaging in critical consciousness to help them move towards antiracism in their personal and professional lives. Join Dr. Conner as she shares the step-by-step process of this study and the takeaways for all of us.
About Dr. Charmaine Conner
Dr. Charmaine Conner is a Licensed Professional Counselor (TX) and National Certified Counselor (NCC) with experience providing mental health services to children, adolescents and adults in a variety of settings: residential, private practice, and non-profit agencies. She specializes in play therapy, servicing children who are transracially adopted, children who have experienced trauma, and children who have demonstrated academic and behavioral concerns. Her clinical experiences have afforded her with the knowledge and skills to provide diverse examples when teaching and supervising students.
Dr. Conner was selected as a 2018-2019 Doctoral Fellow with the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). Her commitment to serving minority populations and infusing social justice practices into the counseling profession has continued through her scholarly publications, presentations at professional conferences, and mentorship with former students and supervisees.
About Dr. Delishia Pittman
Dr. Delishia Pittman’s research centers on racial and ethnic disparities in health behaviors and outcomes. Areas of particular emphasis include substance use, coping behavior, and stress (chronic and traumatic) with the intent to further understanding of how these factors, independently and collectively, affect behavioral health outcomes among African Americans. She employs life course epidemiological frameworks to study behavioral and psychosocial processes that link adult health and disease risk to physical or social exposures during emerging adulthood.
Dr. Pittman’s current projects extend this work to focus on sexual health vulnerabilities, including STI and HIV infection risk behaviors in heterosexual Black women. This project seeks to model the complex relationships between psycho-socio-cultural contextual factors in STI and HIV infection risk among Black college women.
Dr. Pittman is a practicing licensed psychologist in the District of Columbia.
