Counselor Education Programs Faculty
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Ph.D., Myron & Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education and Director of The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development.
Dr. Colangelo has authored numerous articles on counseling gifted students and the affective development of gifted. He has edited two texts: New Voices in Counseling the Gifted (with Ronald Zaffrann) and Handbook of Gifted Education, Editions I, II, and III (with Gary Davis). He has authored “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students” (with Susan Assouline and Miraca Gross). He has served on the editorial boards of major journals including Counseling and Development, Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal of Creative Behavior, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Roeper Review. He has presented a number of research papers at national and international conferences and has been a keynote speaker on numerous occasions.
In 1991, he was presented with the Distinguished Scholar Award by the National Association for Gifted Children; in 1995, he received the Alumni Achievement Award presented by the School of Education, University of Wisconsin- Madison. In 2000, he was elected to the Iowa Academy of Education and received the State of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. In 2002, he received the President’s Award from the National Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Colangelo was elected President of the Iowa Academy of Education for 2004-2005. In 2004, he was appointed by Governor Tom Vilsack (Iowa) to the Iowa Learns Council.
Tarrell Awe Agahe PortmanTarrell Awe Agahe Portman, Ph.D., L.M.H.C., N.C.C., Associate Professor and Coordinator of Counselor Education & Supervision (PhD) and School Counseling (MA) Programs in the Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation and Student Development at The University of Iowa. Dr. Portman holds professional licenses as a K-12 school counselor, school psychological examiner, licensed mental health counselor, and teacher. She received her baccalaureate degree in Teaching (Art K-12) and Elementary (K-8) from Southeast Missouri State University. She earned her MA degree in Guidance and Counseling (K-12) in 1988 from Southeast Missouri State University. She has 14 years experience as a teacher and school counselor at the elementary, junior high, and secondary school levels in both rural and suburban school settings. During her tenure in public schools, she served as a Chapter I Administrator and as a Director of Special Education. Dr. Portman has developed and implemented comprehensive school counseling programs in four school districts and continues to consult with school districts that are in the process of implementing comprehensive school counseling programs. Prior to accepting a faculty position at the University of Iowa, Dr. Portman earned her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from a CACREP approved program at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 1999.
Dr. Portman's research is focused on the Translation of Theory to Practice in Counseling as it interacts with three specific areas of counselor development (supervision and consultation), multiculturalism (particularly American Indians and giftedness), and education reform (action research in education). A sampling of Dr. Portman’s 52 publications include, Faces of the Future: School Counselors as Cultural Mediators (2008), Native American Healing Traditions (2006), Self Perceptions of Multicultural Competency: A Developmental Study (2006), Professional School Counselor’s Approaches to Technology (2006), Beloved Women: Nurturing Leadership from an American Indian Perspective (2005), Critical Issues of Literature on Counseling International Students (2004), Revisiting the Spirit: A Call for Research Related to Rural Native Americans (2003), Multiculturalism and Ethics (2002), Empowering Students for Social Justice (ES2J): A structured group approach (2002), and American Indian Women Sex Role Attributes (2001). In addition to being an avid researcher, Dr. Portman has over 85 presentations at International, National and Regional Conferences and Seminars. She has chaired/co-chaired/served on over 20 dissertation committees since 2000.
Dr. Portman has taught the following Master’s Program courses: Action Research I: Assessment and Appraisal, Action Research II: Field Based Research, Professional School Counselor, School Counseling Program Leadership and Management, Introduction to Group Counseling, Microcounseling, Multiculturalism in the Helping Professions, Practicum in School Counseling, and Internship in School Counseling. She has taught the following Doctoral Program courses: Supervision Theory and Practice, Research in Counseling, Qualitative Research, Systems Consultation, and Internship in CES.
Dr. Portman has provided professional service to the counseling profession at the national, regional, and state levels by serving as past-president of the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and past-president of the Iowa Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. She has served on several ACA committees including chairing the ACA Research and Knowledge Committee. Dr. Portman is active in several ACA divisions such as AMCD, ACES, CSJ, CAHEAD, ASGW, and ACCE. As a school counselor educator, Dr. Portman served as a National Standards Trainer for ASCA, Research Summit participate, College Board Counselor Education Committee, Iowa School Counseling Association Governing Board, Iowa School Counseling Taskforce, and was appointed to the National Board for Performance in Teaching Standards (NBPTS) School Counseling Committee in Washington, D.C. in 2002 to assist in writing the NPTS School Counseling Standards. She assisted in the writing of the Iowa Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Program Guide and is a member of the State of Iowa Counseling Taskforce.
Dr. Portman was appointed as a COE Dean’s Scholar in spring 2007. In 2007, she was elected as the chair of the COE Faculty Advisory Committee. She has served on multiple UI, COE, and CRSD committees during her tenure at Iowa. Dr. Portman served as the CRSD Technology Coordinator for 8 years and currently serves on the UI Academic Technologies Committee. In the summer of 2007, Dr. Portman represented the UI COE in South Korea at Cheoungju National University of Education to discuss Teacher Education and Action Research and participated in establishing an International Research Team with researchers from Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan.
Dr. Portman was selected as the first recipient of the Counselors for Social Justice Mary Smith Arnold Anti-Oppression Award in 2006. Dr. Portman was elected by the UI Faculty Senate to serve on the University of Iowa Charter Committee for Diversity. She is a national Holmes Partnership Scholar Alum and currently serves on the National Association of Holmes Scholar Alumni Board of Directors. She has been honored as a National Indian Fellow through the United States Department of Education. She served 2 terms as Leader of the White River Band of Cherokees.
Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Dr. Duys has been employed as a counselor and counseling supervisor since 1989. During that time he has worked as a school counselor, a college counselor, and a mental health counselor. In 1998, Dr. Duys earned a Ph. D. in Counselor Education and Supervision from Western Michigan University. Following subsequent work as an elementary school counselor, he served for six years as the coordinator of the school counseling program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he was eventually awarded the rank of associate professor. He has presented at international, national, regional, and state conferences on topics related to school counseling, career counseling, and counselor education.
Dr. Duys has been pursuing three lines of research: improving developmental approaches to school counseling, integrating career development models, and exploring the development of counselor cognitive complexity. Specific interests in the first research line include an investigation of the usefulness of Kegan’s constructive-developmental model in school counseling practice and the design of comprehensive programs, exploring common developmental issues like bullying dynamics and related counseling/prevention approaches, and effective methods for preventing school violence. Interests in the second line include testing and exploring practical applications of Tiedeman’s decision making theory, integrating popular career development models, and investigating the career related experiences of gifted students and students with disabilities. Interests in the third line include the development of counselors’ construction of clinical hypotheses, training conditions that impact counselor cognitive development and counseling skill acquisition, and the nature of counselors’ social differentiation. He has especially enjoyed engaging in interdisciplinary research related to these three lines of inquiry. He has published articles in Counselor Education and Supervision, the American Journal of Health Behavior, Career Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development.
In the area of service, Dr. Duys has been active at the national, state, and local levels. Dr. Duys has served on the editorial board for the journal of Counselor Education and Supervision since 2002. During the 2006-07 academic year, he served as president of the Iowa Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. At the university he has served on the department’s Comprehensive Exam Committee.
Currently, Dr. Duys is teaching courses in career counseling, professional school counseling, issues and trends in counselor education research, and counseling theory.
Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Malik S. Henfield is an Assistant Professor in the Counselor Education program in the College of Education at The University of Iowa. In addition to his faculty appointment, Dr. Henfield also serves as the Administrator for Diversity at The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. He received his B.A. in Biology from Francis Marion University, his M.Ed. and Ed.S. in K-12 School Counseling from The University of South Carolina, and his Ph.D. in Counselor Education from The Ohio State University.
During his undergraduate studies, Dr. Henfield was named to the Francis Marion University President’s List (Fall 1993). He was also awarded the Lambda Lambda Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, Omega Man of the Year Award for his continued service to the university and community in 1997 and again during his tenure as Basileus in 1998. Dr. Henfield is still very much devoted to community service in his role as the Vice-Basileus of the Eta Upsilon graduate chapter and the faculty advisor to the Mu Delta undergraduate chapter at The University of Iowa.
Shortly after graduation from The University of South Carolina, Dr. Henfield took a professional school counseling position at Blackville-Hilda Junior High School, located in Blackville, South Carolina. In addition to this position, Dr. Henfield gained professional experience counseling multicultural gifted students during the summers of 2003, 2004, and 2005, as an academic counselor for the Center for Talented Youth (CTY)—a world renown gifted education program—at their flagship site, John Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland.
While enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the Counselor Education program at The Ohio State University, Dr. Henfield was awarded the F.P. and G.K. Gross Scholarship. He also had the distinction of being named a National Holmes Scholar. During this time, Dr. Henfield also managed to deliver over 25 national, regional, state, and local presentations and produce 8 refereed journal, magazine, and newsletter publications. His doctoral education culminated with being named the school counseling program’s Outstanding Doctoral Student for the 2005-2006 school year.
Dr. Henfield’s research agenda is focused upon the academic achievement of African American students in K – 16 educational settings. He is particularly interested in the factors (i.e., psychological; social; and cultural) that impede and/or enhance the educational experiences and career aspirations of students of color in gifted education programs. Dr. Henfield will begin teaching courses focused upon school counseling and gifted education in K-16 educational settings. As the Administrator for Diversity at The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, Dr. Henfield is responsible for researching, writing, and advocating for the recruitment and retention of multicultural gifted and talented students.
Susannah M. Wood
Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Susannah Wood completed her Ph.D. in Counselor Education with a cognate in Gifted Education at The College of William & Mary, focusing on gifted adolescents’ experiences in school counseling. Dr. Wood's background includes working as a middle school counselor in Newport News, Virginia, while spending summers providing residential counseling for programs such as Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth, and the Virginia Governor’s School for the Visual and Performing Arts and Humanities.
Dr. Wood has presented at a variety of national and state-level organizational conferences including the American Counseling Association, Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and the National Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Wood won the Margaret, The Lady Thatcher Medallion for scholarship, character, and service within the School of Education and The College of William and Mary community in 2006.
She is working as an assistant professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation and Student Development, helping prepare professional school counselors to work with gifted students in partnership with The Connie Belin and Jacquline N. Blank International Center for Gifted and Talented Education. She has taught courses in microcounseling, counseling children and adolescents, school counseling practicum, and a professional orientation seminar at the doctoral level.
Ph.D, Clinical Instructor
Debra Mishak received her BA in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy, her MA in Counselor Education, and her Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning at The University of Iowa. Dr. Mishak worked twelve years as a high school choral director, three years as a talented and gifted director, and fourteen years as a K-12 school counselor. She served as a site supervisor for The University of Iowa school counseling program for eight years. During her graduate studies, Ms. Mishak worked as the supervisor for the Counseling Laboratory for Talent Development at the Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. For eight years she also held the position of state coordinator of Invent, Iowa!, an invention and inventiveness program for Iowa students in grades K-12.
During her many years in education, Dr. Mishak has spoken at numerous conferences, including the World Conference for Gifted Education, The Australasian Conference on Gifted and Talented Education, Iowa Art Educators state conference, Iowa Music Educators state conference, Music Educators national conference, Iowa School Counselor Association state conference, and the American Counseling Association national conference. She has provided long and short term consultation to public and private schools and school districts in Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, she has served on state and district music, talented and gifted, and school counseling curriculum writing committees, and is currently the university's liaison to the Iowa City school counselor curriculum review committee.
Dr. Mishak's research interests include curriculum, supervision, and accountability in school counseling; counseling Hispanic and indigenous adolescents; counseling adolescents and adults with Asperger's syndrome; and midlife transition counseling.
Counselor Education Ph.D. Program
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