Seminary of the Southwest is happy to announce that at the February 8, 2022 meeting of the Southwest Board of Trustees, the board unanimously voted to promote Dr. Stephanie Ramirez to the rank of Associate Professor. Her new title is Associate Professor of Counselor Education and Coordinator of the Latinx Counseling Concentration Program.
Ramirez completed her PhD at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Her doctorate is in Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) with a specialization in Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) and Social Justice. The emphasis of her doctoral studies can be summed up in her dissertation title, Beyond the U.S.: A Qualitative Study on the Impact of Travel Abroad for Female Counselor Education and Supervision Students. Outside of teaching, Stephanie is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). She has counseled clients in a variety of settings, including providing counseling and advocacy services for undocumented women experiencing domestic violence, working with senior adults and caregivers, and, recently, working with at-risk youth.
Since joining Southwest in 2015, Ramirez has made significant contributions to the academic and cultural life of Southwest, most notably the design and implementation of the Latinx Counseling Concentration (LCC) at Seminary of the Southwest. The LCC is a specialization offered by the seminary for Clinical Mental Health Counseling students with the purpose of preparing and training curious, culturally empathic, accepting, self-aware counselors. The objective of this concentration is to help foster bilingual and bicultural counselors in order to work more effectively with diverse generations within the Latinx community.
“Dr. Ramirez designed the Latinx Counseling Concentration program at Seminary of the Southwest from the ground up, and it is one of the first of its kind in the field,” said Dr. Gena St. David, Director of the Loise Henderson Wessendorff Center for Christian Ministry and Vocation and Associate Professor of Counselor Education. “Her culturally-responsive approach to counselor education has been recognized in national journals for its compelling outcomes and innovation. Students and faculty are fortunate to learn from Dr. Ramirez both in and out of the classroom.”
Ramirez envisions increased impact as the LCC grows: “My hope is that we are recognized for being the “go-to” program to train students interested in learning more about this amazing community. My vision is that we continue the work of training spiritually competent, culturally empathic, accepting, self-aware counselors to serve God in this ever-changing world.”
