Pursuing a career in aircraft maintenance, everything changed for Richard the day a school counselor came to visit the hangar. Looking for volunteers to spend their lunch hour mentoring students at the nearby elementary school, the school counselor invited Richard to spend just one lunch a week at the school. Richard was hooked.

After completing his Masters in School Counseling, Richard joined the Everett Public Schools District as a full-time school counselor and became involved with planning and coordinating district-wide initiatives, leading school counselor in-service trainings, and serving with the district’s crisis response team. In 2008 Richard was awarded the Washington School Counselor Association’s (WSCA) School Counselor of the Year Award. In 2009 Richard was elected President-Elect of WSCA.

In 2010, Richard left the public school arena serving as an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at Seattle Pacific University while pursuing his doctoral degree. During 2011 and 2012, Richard served as Interim Accreditation & Assessment Assistant facilitating state/national accreditations and the School of Education’s overarching assessment system. In December of 2013 Richard successfully defended his dissertation, “Psychometric Reanalysis of Happiness, Temperament, and Spirituality Scales with Children in Faith-Based Elementary Schools.”

Richard currently serves with the faculty at Georgia Southern University as Assistant Professor and School Counseling Program Coordinator for the MEd & EdS Counselor Education programs in the Department of Leadership, Technology & Human Development, College of Education.

Richard’s presentations have included school counselor in-service trainings in various districts, workshop sessions at state, national and international levels, invited speaker for King5 Television’s series Thrive by Five: Learning for Life, radio interview on KUOW’s The Conversation, and keynote speeches at educational events. Richard had the honor of addressing school counselors from around the country in Boston, Massachusetts at the American School Counselor Association’s 2010 National Conference, introducing Dr. Norm Gysbers – legendary pioneer in the field of school counseling.

Richard has written for various publications including Counselors’ for Social Justice The Activist, The Journal of Research on Christian Education, Counseling and Spirituality, American School Counselor Association School Counselor, as well as Washington School Counselor Association Insights.

Richard’s professional interests include school counseling/technology infusion; assessment, accreditation and standards-alignment; data-driven comprehensive school counseling; professional school counselors as leaders; student spirituality; group counseling dynamics; and working with students with emotional behavioral disorders.