November 4-6, 2026
Embassy Suites Resort & Convention Center
Concord, NC
We look forward to having you join us at the North Carolina School Counselor Association Conference!
We hope to see you next year!
Lead Presenter: Brian Barnes
In many schools, AP coursework is reserved for a few students seen as university-bound, while others who’d benefit from its rigor never get the chance. This session examines the barriers to AP access and how to remove them. We’ll share data on how North Carolina became a national leader in AP participation and performance, and highlight College Board tools helping teachers individualize instruction to reach a broader range of learners.
Lead Presenter: Stephen Coyle
As school counselors, we shape how students see their futures. This session challenges the “9-inch frying pan” mindset—the tendency to limit career options based on our own assumptions. Explore how to expand students’ vision by highlighting skilled trades, apprenticeships, military service, community and technical colleges, and entrepreneurship. Learn practical ways to remove barriers, celebrate diverse pathways, and help every student pursue a future aligned with their strengths and interests.
Lead Presenter: Diane Virgil
In this session, Diana Virgil, 2024 School Counselor of the Year, highlights the barriers she experienced in her school counseling career and how she opened doors through collaboration, authenticity, and vulnerability. Diana shares how honesty, openness, and transparency enable her personal growth and ensure she shows up for her students. Diana’s personal journey offers lessons in identifying and overcoming obstacles and having the courage to be vulnerable.
Lead Presenter: Lindsay Weathers
Build check-in systems that are efficient, meaningful, and outcome-driven. This session shares practical strategies for designing academic and behavior check-in/check-out processes that streamline data collection, strengthen student relationships, and align with school counseling goals. Walk away with tools you can implement immediately to monitor progress without overwhelming your time.
Lead Presenter: Kisha Bryant
This collaborative session is designed specifically for district student services directors to engage in dialogue around current priorities, emerging challenges, and statewide updates impacting student support services. Participants will explore leadership considerations, share promising practices across districts, and discuss strategies to strengthen systems of support, compliance, and student outcomes. Time will also be provided for networking, problem-solving, and cross-district collaboration.
Lead Presenter: Danielle Durante
Teaching school counseling lessons is an essential part of comprehensive school counseling programs, supporting students’ academic, social-emotional, and postsecondary development. Creating engaging lessons ensures all students develop attitudes, knowledge, and skills to support their success. This interactive session will teach participants ways to plan, implement, and evaluate counseling lessons while using a variety of student engagement strategies. Attendees will learn and practice different active participation techniques and will leave with a plan to incorporate strategies into future lessons.
Lead Presenter: Carla Kersey
School counselors help students imagine what is possible—but turning those possibilities into clear, meaningful plans can be challenging. This interactive session introduces the Landed College and Career Hub, a customizable platform designed to help students in grades 6–12 explore careers, develop essential skills, establish goals, plan their education, build resumes, organize accomplishments, and create a portfolio that grows with them.
Lead Presenter: Alani Staples
School counselors are doing meaningful work every day while navigating competing demands and expectations. But how do you know what students need, what is working, and where to focus next? This session explores practical ways to use data to connect student needs with intentional action and evidence of change. Participants will gain strategies to make informed decisions, strengthen advocacy, and show how school counseling contributes to meaningful outcomes for students.
Lead Presenter: Genvieve Stephenson
This session will provide school counselors with practical strategies for utilizing universal data screening tools (academic, behavioral, and social/emotional) to systematically identify student needs, inform targeted interventions, and advocate for students and the comprehensive school counseling program. Participants will learn how to simply administer screeners, analyze the data to reveal systemic barriers and intervention suggestions, and demonstrate and advocate program effectiveness.
Lead Presenter: Skye David
Come meet the New Frame lobbyist team representing NCSCA at the NC General Assembly! Learn about the structure of the GA, how bills become law, and practical advocacy strategies for school counselors.
Lead Presenter: Candice Lewis
Effective mentorship and supervision are essential for developing confident, ethical, and reflective school counselors, yet many enter these roles without formal training. This session bridges theory and practice by introducing developmental, reflective, and solution-focused models alongside practical tools such as SMART goals, scaling questions, and strategies for crucial conversations. Participants will leave with ready-to-use templates to strengthen mentorship across K–12 settings.
Lead Presenter: Deanna Ford
High school counselors must deliver meaningful career exploration while managing large caseloads. This session provides ready-to-use, evidence-based “quick win” strategies that require minimal prep and yield high impact. Participants will explore Tier 1 activities that build career awareness, align with American School Counselor Association Mindsets & Behaviors, and support postsecondary readiness through lessons, advisory, and existing school structures.
Lead Presenter: Carolyn Stone
Session Description Coming Soon
Lead Presenter: Amanda Moser
Elementary school counselors are often asked to do more with less time, fewer resources, and limited opportunities within the school schedule. This session will highlight creative, realistic, and impactful counseling programs designed to strengthen school climate, increase student engagement, and support social/emotional learning in an elementary setting. Find practical strategies, ready-to-use ideas, and inspiration for building meaningful counseling programs.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Cahall
School counselors are uniquely positioned to lead, advocate, and influence positive change—but many struggle to gain recognition beyond their immediate classroom or school. This interactive session will provide actionable strategies for counselors to step up, stand out, and elevate their impact at the school, district, community, and even national levels. Participants will explore ways to showcase their work, advocate effectively, and embrace leadership opportunities that align with their strengths.
Lead Presenter: Hanna Mick
In today’s world, perception is everything. The way others perceive your school counseling program can significantly influence its success, support and sustainability. This keynote empowers school counselors to take control of the narrative, ensuring their program is seen, heard and valued within their schools and communities. It’s time to elevate your program from being merely visible to becoming an indispensable pillar of support and growth in your school.
Lead Presenter: Carmen Ramos
High school counselors support academic success through comprehensive mental health programming. This session covers school-wide SEL and family education; targeted supports and teacher training to identify and respond to student needs; crisis response, including self-harm, CPS reporting, safety planning, and 504 plans; and referrals and partnerships with co-located and community providers to ensure continuous care.
Lead Presenter: Austin Laws
Please join us as we explore how to build a counseling small group program within your comprehensive school counseling program. We will share a practical step-by-step guide on how to market your small groups, recruit students, partner with stakeholders, schedule groups, develop groups, and deliver the small groups. We will share how our school counseling program moved from struggling to have one small group each school year to building a small group program with diverse group offerings.
Lead Presenter: Rolanda Mitchell
The presenters will share their experiences facilitating a pilot course for graduate students in school counseling and educational leadership programs. The course was developed in response to extensive empirical evidence regarding the discrepancy between counselors’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities and the expectations from school administrators. Effective strategies for collaborative leadership to support the implementation of counseling programs will be discussed.
Lead Presenter: Zakira Cruz
This presentation equips school counselors with practical strategies for developing data-driven, student-centered school counseling program goals aligned with school improvement priorities and the ASCA National Model. Participants will learn how to use school and student data to identify needs, create measurable SMART goals, implement targeted interventions, and evaluate program effectiveness through process, perception, and outcome data.
Lead Presenter: Alexis Crump
This session equips school counselors with a structured approach to student emotional regulation within Responsive Services. Participants will learn the “Regulate, Relate, Respond, Reinforce” model and apply brief, practical strategies across Tier 1–3 supports. The session includes classroom, group, and individual interventions, along with ethical use of AI tools to enhance efficiency. Interactive activities will support real-world application in school settings.
Lead Presenter: Shelby Adcock
This session introduces relationship mapping as a Tier 1 strategy counselors can use to ensure every student is connected to at least one supportive adult. Participants will learn how to lead a staff-friendly mapping process, identify disconnected students, and use results to strengthen belonging, engagement, and MTSS supports. Attendees will leave with practical tools they can implement immediately in their schools.
Lead Presenter: José Cisneros
Latine students account for almost 20% of public school students in NC. Is your school equipped to engage Latine families as partners in their children’s education? This session will introduce participants to asset-based frameworks, focusing on identifying and leveraging the strengths and unique experiences of Latine families. This approach fosters a more holistic understanding of families’ potential contributions and engagement with schools.
Lead Presenter: Lisen Roberts
Tired of using the same old children’s books? Join us for an interactive session exploring current (2021–2026), culturally diverse children’s literature for elementary individual, small group, and classroom counseling. Participants will receive engaging lesson/activity ideas connected to North Carolina school counseling standards and curriculum. Featured books will represent diverse identities and highlight positive character traits across gender, race, ethnicity, and other cultural experiences.
Lead Presenter: Maylee Vazquez
School counselors, spend about 25% of their day with exceptional learners, often feel unprepared due to a significant training gap that is crucial for addressing students’ academic, career, and social needs (Head & Lewis, 2024). To address this issue, experiential learning can enhance school counseling students’ awareness of exceptional students’ experiences. This presentation illustrates how experiential learning fosters reflection and empathy; focusing on accessibility and equity.
Lead Presenter: Denise Hawkins
The transition from graduate student to professional school counselor is exhilarating but complex. This session provides a research-based survival guide for the “First-Year Cohort.” We explore five pillars of success: cultivating professional identity, masterfully communicating roles to administrators, leveraging supervision, and establishing wellness routines. Crucially, we examine how to use entry-level data to understand your school population and advocate for student needs from day one.
Lead Presenter: Hanna Mick
In today’s world, perception is everything. The way others perceive your school counseling program can significantly influence its success, support and sustainability. This keynote empowers school counselors to take control of the narrative, ensuring their program is seen, heard and valued within their schools and communities. It’s time to elevate your program from being merely visible to becoming an indispensable pillar of support and growth in your school.
Lead Presenter: Monique Daniels
This presentation proposal focuses on vaping education and prevention by increasing awareness of health risks, addressing myths about e-cigarettes, and examining social and cultural influences on youth vaping. Evidence-based prevention strategies, school and family engagement, and practical tools for early intervention are highlighted to support healthier decision-making and reduce vaping initiation.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Cahall
We’ve all had those moments when a referral comes in that could’ve been handled in the classroom, or when a teacher feels unsupported and we’re stretched too thin to explain everything behind the scenes. This session creates space for some honest reflection while focusing on what actually helps.
Through quick partner discussions, scenario-based problem solving, and ready-to-use tools, participants will explore the most common gaps between teachers and school counselors—and how to bridge them!
Lead Presenter: Robin Heyward
What if the villain isn’t the problem, but a clue? This interactive session uses Disney characters, including those often misunderstood, to teach coping skills, emotional regulation, and resilience across Prek-12 settings. Grounded in the ASCA National Model and aligned with MTSS, participants will gain ready-to-use lessons and data-informed strategies that build empathy, reframe behavior, and improve student outcomes.
Lead Presenter: Ruben Martinez
Benefits and responsibilities of the National Guard. Presenting opportunities for counselors to discuss with students.
Lead Presenter: Ronnie Armstrong
As schools work to strengthen student outcomes through social/emotional development and healthy school climates, school counselors are uniquely positioned to support schoolwide SEL through explicit instruction, relationship-building structures, and integration within core academics. This session will explore the evolving role of counselors as SEL curriculum and implementation leaders through practical strategies, collaboration, and examples for sustainable schoolwide SEL instruction.
Lead Presenter: Christina Brown
Do advocacy and leadership feel intimidating? We get it! This session will empower counselors to see themselves as influential leaders and powerful advocates for change. Counselors will extend their impact beyond individual student support to shaping school culture, influencing policy, and promoting equitable practices at the school, district, and state levels. Counselors will leave with practical, actionable strategies to strengthen the profession while increasing student success and outcomes.
Lead Presenter: Marshall Nagy
Looking for practical, easy-to-use resources to strengthen your responsive counseling practices? Together, we’ll build a toolbox with strategies for de-escalation, peer conflict resolution, and other common student needs. Come ready to participate and experience these activities from a student’s perspective. You’ll leave with tools you can use right away!
Lead Presenter: Amber Parker
NCVPS helps school counselors expand student access to online courses, certified teachers, flexible learning options, and academic supports. This session will show how counselors can use NCVPS to support course planning, graduation progress, college and career readiness, and equitable opportunities for middle and high school students.
Lead Presenter: Meredith Draughn
School counseling preparation programs are full of important topics; however, one subject that is sorely lacking for school counselors is classroom management practices. Focus on planning to succeed in classroom and large group settings with planning templates, evidence-based structures, and a few tips and tricks from veteran teachers that will allow you to easily deliver and assess classroom and large-group lessons based on the ASCA Student Standards.
Lead Presenter: James Henderson
This presentation focuses on the essential task of developing therapeutic rapport with elementary students. The heart of the session explores how to incorporate whimsy to foster a positive learning environment that sparks curiosity and brings joy into the office, classroom, and school building. Participants will learn and discuss unique ways to engage with students and will leave with at least three new strategies to use, providing additional tools for their professional “toolbox.”
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Howard Leonce
School counselors are often overwhelmed by competing demands yet struggle to demonstrate their impact. This session offers a practical approach to using time-tracking and program data to evaluate practices, advocate for appropriate duties, and redesign services aligned with the ASCA National Model. Participants will learn to translate daily tasks into measurable outcomes that support student success, using real-world examples and ready-to-use tools.
Lead Presenter: Bethany White
Grief doesn’t wait for convenience, and school counselors often support students through loss while navigating their own. Join a candid, compassionate session on being grief-informed in practice while honoring your personal experience. Explore practical strategies for supporting student grief, responding to crises, and maintaining sustainable boundaries. This session aligns with ASCA Competency B-SS 3, supporting students through transitions, critical change, and grief through counseling.
Lead Presenter: Amanda Dixon
Explore the NC Career Impact Pro training and certification process – this added tool equips educators to guide meaningful, student-centered career development conversations. This session highlights how NCcareers.org CDP tools and assessments, paired with intentional coaching strategies, help educators build trust, personalize pathways, and empower every student to navigate their future with confidence.
Lead Presenter: Marie Weller
Looking for practical ways to build belonging and strengthen student connections? Get up, connect, and experience Sanford Harmony’s Everyday Practices firsthand while discovering how they can be used across Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports. You’ll also explore lessons and activities for direct skill instruction and take a guided look at the Harmony Online Learning Portal. Leave with relationship-building strategies and resources you can put into practice right away!
Lead Presenter: Natalie McCurley
Discover how one district successfully leveraged a collaborative Think Tank model to elevate and advocate for the elementary school counseling profession during its transition from an enhancements schedule to phased ASCA-aligned implementation—resulting in all elementary counselors being removed from the rotation for the first time in our district’s history! Participants will gain practical, replicable strategies for promoting the appropriate utilization of school counselors.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie Preston
This session demonstrates how Early/Middle College counselors from three campuses established a structured collaborative model to strengthen their Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCPs). Participants will learn strategies for planning annual counseling goals, aligning programming to student needs, streamlining graduation audits, and developing shared tools, calendars, and procedures across school sites.
Lead Presenter: Charles Aiken
This session will provide participants with an overview of the newly adopted K-12 Math Standards and the implementation of math pathways at the high school level. These new pathways provide students with greater choice in the math classes they choose to take with an increased emphasis on the students’ postsecondary plans and interests.
Lead Presenter: Raquel Evans
As school counselors, we want students to be prepared for life’s adventures before the rubber hits the road. This session delivers hands-on strategies and activities to help students build six essential skills: Self-Awareness, Adaptability, Empathy, Collaboration, Agency, and Purpose.
Lead Presenter: Nina Franklin
This session shares how to plan and implement a schoolwide Wellness Week for students, staff, and families. Wellness Week is a proactive program that builds awareness of the school counseling program, while supporting the development of SEL skills, academic behaviors, and career readiness. It includes daily themes, student activities, staff challenges, and family engagement. Participants will leave with a flexible planning guide to create a Wellness Week tailored to their school’s needs.
Lead Presenter: Constance Pierce
Every junior is thinking about what comes next, but counselors don’t always know what’s on their minds. Next Step is North Carolina’s statewide postsecondary planning program that gives juniors space to explore every path forward, college, military, and workforce, while giving counselors a window into what students are actually planning. Walk away with practical ways to use Next Step insights to start the right conversations with the right students at the right time.
Lead Presenter: Stacey Diaz
Join a principal and school counselor team as they share how intentional collaboration creates systems that empower every student. This interactive session explores how aligned leadership strengthens comprehensive school counseling programs, supports schoolwide initiatives, improves communication, and builds a culture of belonging and student success. Participants will leave with practical strategies and real-world ideas to strengthen collaboration in their own schools.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Howard Leonce
As student mental health needs rise, school counselors are often pulled into crisis-driven roles, at the expense of comprehensive programming. This session offers practical strategies for balancing responsive services with proactive, data-driven supports. Participants will learn to implement triage systems, set professional boundaries, and sustain Tier 1–3 services while preventing burnout and maintaining effective, student-centered programs.
Lead Presenter: Andrea LeClair
Ready to get students moving and improving self-regulation? This session brings Zones of Regulation to life through purposeful movement and brain-body strategies that stick. Whether you’re in the classroom, counseling office, or hallway, you’ll walk away with practical tools to boost focus, reduce disruptions, and empower students to take charge of their own regulation—in ways that feel fun, not forced. Expect hands-on activities, real-world examples, and ideas you can use immediately!
Lead Presenter: Savon Crews
Early College programs are expanding, but many students are struggling to keep up with the academic and emotional demands of college-level work. This interactive session introduces a customized MTSS framework for Early College settings helping counselors identify struggling students early, implement targeted interventions, and monitor progress effectively. Through real scenarios, data strategies, and collaborative planning, attendees will gain tools they can immediately apply in their schools.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Kasaundra Moody
This session examines the evolving role of the professional school counselor as a leader, advocate, and change agent within today’s schools. While direct services such as individual counseling, small groups, and crisis response remain essential, school counselors are uniquely positioned to extend their impact beyond individual student support to influence systemic change. This shift is critical in addressing persistent opportunity gaps and ensuring equitable outcomes for all students.
Lead Presenter: Maggie Latta-Milord
If you are interested in creating a garden space for your school or looking to use a school garden more regularly within your counseling practice, join us! We will cover the basics of getting started with a school garden as well as dive into why garden spaces are meaningful spaces of healing and emotional regulation, particularly for our students navigating trauma. Participants will leave with confidence and inspiration to get their students out in the garden to build skills and support healing.
Lead Presenter: Noelle Hughes
Do you have a large caseload and struggle to reach all students at the tier 1 level? Try using the school news or Youtube to your advantage to reach all students! In this session, attendees will discuss various SEL topics and supports to share school wide, explore different video examples, and learn how to create school wide counseling related content using a video editor.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Stimpson
Mirrors & Windows Book Club is an innovative approach to professional development that expands educators’ social awareness and cultural competence. Through carefully selected diverse children’s books, educators engage in discussions and reflections about race, ethnicity, immigration, and racism. Presenters will share implementation steps and results, and will also facilitate a brief book club experience for session participants.
Lead Presenter: Nancy Willis
Research reveals that 79% of adolescent girls are under so much pressure that they feel like they are going to “explode.” We are going to dive into the findings of the largest-of-its-kind national survey with girls, The Girls’ Index, and learn how 17,000+ girls in grades 5-12 are thinking, behaving and perceiving their worlds. This session will help you identify trends, illuminate concerns, and focus resources to help girls manage stress and pressure in a digital era.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Sherrill
When district direction is limited, school counselors can still build strong, student-centered programs. This session highlights practical ways to align your work with the ASCA National Model at the campus level—without waiting for permission. Learn how to prioritize components, use data to guide decisions, and implement systems that strengthen outcomes and credibility from two counselors who started from square one together and worked to be the first program in their district to apply for RAMP.
Lead Presenter: Annie Goldberg
This session will allow school counselors from rural areas of NC to come together to problem solve, collaborate, and build capacity.
Lead Presenter: Keyoshia Liverman
Students who are disengaged from school often face underlying mental health and environmental challenges that impact attendance and success. This session provides school counselors with practical strategies to identify and re-engage disconnected students through relationship-building, targeted supports, and collaboration. Participants will leave with actionable tools to help students feel seen, safe, and supported.
Lead Presenter: Emme Ann Thompson
This session explores how social media influences student mental health and identity development across K–12 settings. Participants will examine current research, identify warning signs and protective factors, and learn practical, tiered counseling strategies that support student resilience, digital wellness, and healthy identity formation. Attendees will leave with adaptable tools, activities, and intervention ideas for diverse school communities.
Lead Presenter: Jesse Pitt
Explore the landscape of grief and loss in this comprehensive session. We will dive into brain science as well as the practical reality of supporting students and staff through transitions big and small. Gain specific ideas and activities for grief groups, discuss real-world situations, and learn strategies for managing whole-school crises, from student deaths to the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Lead Presenter: Eric Schweitzer
In this interactive breakout session, participants will learn how to use simple, easy-to-perform magic tricks to teach core social/emotional learning skills such as growth mindset, empathy, self-regulation, and kindness. Designed specifically for school counselors and elementary educators, this session blends storytelling, student engagement strategies, and hands-on practice. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use ideas that make SEL lessons more memorable, meaningful, and fun.
Lead Presenter: Yvette Crawford
A power-packed session on how school counselors can strengthen communication and collaboration with stakeholders to develop a strong, supportive community network. Gain insight into how this network can help build family-school-community connections and sustainable partnerships that will enhance student achievement and success across the three domains. We will provide strategies on effective collaboration, choosing partnerships and initiatives, funding challenges, finding resources and more.
Lead Presenter: Sarah Joyner
This session highlights the collaborative partnership between School Counselors and Career Development Coordinators (CDCs) in supporting students’ college, career, and academic planning. Through aligned efforts, we ensure all students receive consistent guidance and access to meaningful opportunities.
Lead Presenter: Kim Hardister
This session explores how brain development and neurodivergence (e.g., autism, ADHD) impact learning, behavior, and regulation. Using brain-based learning principles, participants will connect student behaviors to underlying neurological processes and gain practical strategies to support regulation, collaboration, and inclusive school environments.
Lead Presenter: Rotisha Hall
Black school counselors are more than educators, we are leaders, advocates, and change-makers shaping the future of student success. This powerful session explores how passion, leadership, unity, and growth drive our impact in schools. Through real-world insights, research, and storytelling, we’ll examine representation, advocacy, and self-care in a system that often overlooks our contributions. Attendees will leave empowered to lead, uplift, and transform their schools and communities.
Lead Presenter: Misty Wolfe
CTE data is a story of each student’s journey, shaped by both individual data elements and the connections between them. In this session, school counselors will explore key CTE reporting elements to form a complete and accurate narrative. By focusing on both the stars and the space between, counselors will learn how to transform data into meaningful insights that support student success and program effectiveness.
Lead Presenter: Crystal Brown
This session explores how to design and implement impactful career fairs for elementary, middle, and high school students. Participants will learn how to tailor experiences by grade level, engage community partners, and prepare students for meaningful interactions. Grounded in the theme “Constellations of Heart,” this presentation highlights strategies to connect every student to future possibilities.
Lead Presenter: Nakia Avery
School counselors play a critical role in strengthening trust between schools, families, and communities. This session explores culturally responsive strategies that improve communication, increase family engagement, reduce barriers to student success, and strengthen academic, social/emotional, and postsecondary outcomes. Attendees will leave with practical tools, leadership strategies, and engagement practices they can implement immediately.
Lead Presenter: Kellie Carr
Are you seeking to ignite an enthusiasm for career exploration for each & every student? Are you looking for resources to enhance career development for all of your students? You’ll gain career day fundamentals including various schedule options, how students select the presentations they want to interact with, & how to create personalized career passports. You will receive interactive career lessons & we will navigate career exploration sites that you can implement with students immediately.
Lead Presenter: Jane Williams
Students are struggling with time management, organization, working memory, emotions, and more while teachers are experiencing more frustration and burnout over these challenges. Covid-19 had long-lasting effects on the developing brain. These effects are becoming more prevalent and ignoring them is creating more problems. It’s time to understand the root cause and learn new ways of helping students succeed and teachers feel supported.
Lead Presenter: Zaynab Abraham
This session explores the importance of meaningful teacher–student connections and their impact on student motivation, engagement, and participation. When students feel safe, valued, and cared for, they are more willing to take risks and engage in learning. From a school counselor’s perspective, this session offers ideas to help counselors support teachers in building stronger, more supportive relationships with their students.
Lead Presenter: Tracey Babb-Morman
School counselors are expected to guide postsecondary planning, yet many students arrive unable to engage due to anxiety, overwhelm, or psychological “freeze” responses. This session explores five anxiety profiles that disrupt future-focused decision-making and derail planning conversations. Using a practical clinical framework, participants will learn to recognize the underlying fear states driving indecision and apply targeted strategies to re-engage students in postsecondary planning.
Lead Presenter: Kisha Bryant
Stay informed on current hot topics impacting school counseling programs across North Carolina This session will provide timely NCDPI updates and key information to support effective practice, compliance, and student success. Participants will also engage in discussion around emerging trends, challenges, and best practices impacting the profession.
Lead Presenter: Scott Nilsen
P.U.L.S.E. (Promoting Unity and Leadership through Student Engagement) empowers students to create a more inclusive, connected school community. Through school climate initiatives such as Anti-Bullying Month, Red Ribbon Week, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Mental Health Awareness activities, students develop leadership, collaboration, and communication skills. P.U.L.S.E. also fosters student voice through quarterly check-ins, brainstorming sessions, and student-led SMART Block activities.
Lead Presenter: LaQuita Lipscomb
What if one counselor-led program could help middle school students reconnect, refocus, and rebuild belief in themselves? In its second year, the PIVOT Program uses updated data to show how early intervention, small-group support, goal setting, skill-building, and positive relationships help students grow academically, emotionally, and socially.
Lead Presenter: Christa Graff
School counselors are addressing the decline in face-to-face communication as students spend increasing time on screens. Using the Ron Clark Academy Amazing Shake model, students build leadership, confidence, communication, and social skills needed for success after high school. Through collaboration with parents, community and business leaders, this program helps students grow into future leaders. Come learn how you can see measurable growth in you and your students.
Lead Presenter: Jennifer Gosnell
Being part of a Student Support Team (SST) and implementing intentional, scheduled weekly meetings using data helped take our school from an “F” to a “B” in two years. As a lead part of the SST, you can implement a weekly data-driven SST meeting that collaborates to impact school-wide success. This team involves all stakeholders to focus on any at-risk students by ensuring they do not slip through the cracks, as well as timely and appropriate addressing of student concerns when they emerge.
Lead Presenter: Beth Fortner
You’ve been asked your “WHY”, but do you know your “BECAUSE”? By applying ASCA-aligned resiliency strategies, you will distinguish between immediate self-care and long-term restorative acts that sustain your professional energy. Participants will walk away with a drafted personal mission statement focused on who they are as individuals and a framework to align career paths with mental well-being for long-term resilience.
Lead Presenter: Kim Mitchell
School counselors make lasting impressions in ways that often go unseen and undocumented. This session explores how everyday interactions with deliberate presence impact students’ futures. Through powerful storytelling and evidence-based strategies, participants will discover how deliberate presence can reshape a student’s trajectory in ways that extend far beyond the school year. Attendees will leave with practical tools to deepen relational skills ensure no student slips through the cracks.
Lead Presenter: Veronica Davila
Please join us in this session as we explore the school counselor’s role in empowering ESL students in the school building within the RTII framework. We will detail how we have spent the past two years working to develop an integrated ESL program within our high school setting. We are excited to share with you both quantitative and qualitative data, as well as our anecdotal experiences. We invite you to examine the 3 tiers as we explore the school counselor’s role working with ESL students.
Lead Presenter: Lacey Bennett
All Career Development Plan components—career interest and values exploration, financial literacy, and individualized planning—build a foundation for students to make informed decisions about postsecondary goals. As students prepare for the transition to 9th grade, this work directly supports their understanding of GPA, intentional course selection, opportunities such as Early College and Career and College Promise, and overall college and career readiness.
Lead Presenter: Desiree Graham
This session explores how school counselors can strengthen student success by fostering collaboration within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Participants will learn practical strategies for defining team roles, implementing targeted interventions, using data to guide decisions, and building partnerships with educators, administrators, families, and mental health providers. Real-world examples and actionable tools will help attendees strengthen collaboration and improve outcomes for all students.
Lead Presenter: Beth Fortner
The WHY and the WHAT we do must be intentionally blended to ensure our counseling practices are clinically sound. Discover how the HEART acronym transforms the ASCA School Counselor Competencies into actionable practice. This session explores Holistic Advocacy, Ethical Excellence, Accountable Leadership, Responsive Relationships, and Transformative Tools.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Mecadon-Mann
School and community supports are available to language-diverse students and families across the state, but what specific supports exist for Spanish-speaking families in the most rural parts of North Carolina? This presentation outlines a research advocacy project that was conducted in the westernmost region of North Carolina. This presentation outlines our process of identifying needs and building systems of support for our school communities.
Lead Presenter: Felicia Rawls
A dynamic session for the Fall North Carolina School Counselors Conference, showcasing a high-impact middle school peer relations program designed to foster students’ academic, social, and emotional growth. Through an integrated approach, the program addresses critical prevention areas, including school dropout, teen pregnancy, suicide awareness, and alcohol/drug abuse prevention.
Participants will gain access to a comprehensive toolkit of ready-to-use, hands-on resources
Lead Presenter: Susan Davis
School counselors recognize mindfulness as a valuable approach to supporting students’ self-management yet often lack practical strategies for integrating it into a comprehensive school counseling model. Participants will be introduced to Mindful Counseling to strengthen emotional connections with and among students, apply it within a Tier 2 small-group program, and empower them to integrate mindfulness-based counseling competencies designed and implemented across NC into their practice.
Lead Presenter: Kelly Lord
New and new-to-district school counselors often face role confusion that impacts effective counseling program implementation. This ASCA-aligned session offers a structured framework for supporting new counselors and those who mentor them. Participants will learn practical strategies for intentional connection, clear goal-setting, and data-informed practices to improve role clarity, increase retention, and reduce burnout across all career stages.
Lead Presenter: Kimberly Stapleton
Schools that use CFNC’s FAFSA tools—like the Finish the FAFSA Report, the NC FAFSA Tracker, and the Financial Aid Champions program—consistently achieve higher FAFSA completion rates. This session highlights the data behind these results and shares practical strategies counselors can use to strengthen financial aid engagement and empower every student.
Lead Presenter: Ellen Miller
…in a day where technology is involved with and in everything, don’t forget the power of reading books aloud to students. Technology is here to stay and there are numerous positives! However, there must be boundaries and a balance for our students. This session will explore the research that shows the power of literature/picture books. We will share how using literacy within our School Counseling Programs fully supports a school’s focus on literacy and any domain we are teaching – not just one.
Lead Presenter: Patrice Banks
Chronic absenteeism is more than an attendance problem—it is a visibility and follow-through challenge. This interactive session offers a practical framework for identifying attendance risk, selecting interventions, documenting actions, and monitoring progress. Through hands-on activities and scenarios, school counselors will explore strategies they can use immediately. Attendees will leave with complimentary, ready-to-use digital tools to support attendance interventions at their schools.
Lead Presenter: Kristen Litchfield
Go into the National Board process with clarity and confidence. Attendees will learn about the “big picture” for each of the four components as well as the key details that need to be addressed. You will be guided through components 1 through 4 with resources to help you plan for successful submission.
Lead Presenter: Meredith Draughn Willis
The immense changes and loss wrought by societal issues have created significant stress and trauma for school communities. Even the loss of what a typical day looks like and feeling safe interacting with others in group settings have required adjustments in our work. Focus on the implications of collective trauma, and walk away with 10 action steps you can use to equip students with readiness skills to navigate life’s challenges.
Lead Presenter: Erica Shoulders-Royster
NC College Connect is North Carolina’s statewide direct admissions program, offering a simplified, student-centered path to college. It provides public high school students access to all 58 community colleges and 40 four-year institutions. This session shares practical strategies for scaling statewide efforts through collaboration, trust-building, and alignment, with insights to help advance equitable, streamlined admissions in other contexts.
Lead Presenter: Henry Chase
This session prepares school counselors to effectively support immigrant students and families through culturally responsive, trauma-informed practices. Participants will learn strategies to address emotional needs, use inclusive and sensitive language, and collaborate with staff to create supportive school environments while connecting families to essential resources.
Lead Presenter: Elizabeth Coccarelli
You’re invited to hear how school counselors can collaborate with SISP teams to advocate for our roles, highlight leadership opportunities, align our work with the National Model and maximize opportunities for direct services.
National Center for Youth Issues
ATTN: NCSCA
P.O. Box 22185
Chattanooga, TN 37422-2185
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