School Counselor Workshop

Bernice Pescosolido is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and Founding Director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research (ICMHSR) and the new Irsay Institute that targets research in the sociomedical sciences. She is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Trained as a medical sociologist at Yale, her research focuses broadly on how social networks and culture provide insights into health, illness and healing phenomena, and more specifically on four areas – stigma, suicide, health care use, and healthcare systems. Her concerns have spanned local, national and international questions and problems, primarily targeting mental illness.

Rebekah is a dedicated and compassionate school and mental health counselor with 20+ years of professional experience. Her career in counseling started as a mental health professional with adolescents in juvenile corrections and in group home settings. After completing her Master’s degree in School Counseling at Indiana University-Indianapolis, she continued working with students as a school counselor at both the middle school and high school setting.  Rebekah also finished her coursework to complete a certificate in Mental Health Counseling at Butler University in 2020 and works currently in the private practice setting. Rebekah joined the Indiana Department of Education as the School Counseling Specialist in August of 2022 and is honored to continue her career with hopes to reach even more students, families and educators.  Rebekah is a board member of the Indiana School Counselor Association and serves on the Communications Committee.

Gabriela M. Rodríguez, PhD, HSPP is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is Clinical Director of the ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Program at the Riley Hospital for Children Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic. She directs the IU Evidence Based Practice Center and the Indiana Statewide Implementation of Multisystemic Therapy (MST).

Dr. Rodríguez earned her B.S. in Psychology from Indiana University Bloomington. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology from Florida International University. She completed her clinical internship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University.

Jerrell Cassady is Professor of Psychology and has been at Ball State since 1999. His areas of expertise include test anxiety, human learning, teacher education, and research design. He frequently works with national organizations (e.g., Smithsonian Institution, National Parks Foundation) and local school and community groups (e.g., Muncie Community Schools, Hancock County Community Foundation) to design and implement evaluation studies documenting successful educational programming in practice.