# Mark Pope (counselor)

Mark Pope, Ed.D. (April 23, 1952 – January 29, 2023) was an American counselor and academic, prominent advocate and innovator in multiculturalism and counseling for minorities.
He was the Thomas Jefferson Professor and Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis (1997–2018), where he was a colleague to the social theorist Robert Rocco Cottone.
Pope served from (2006–2016) as chair of the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy at that university. Pope was widely considered to be one of the founders and leading authors in the field of cultural diversity issues in career counseling and career development, especially for gay and lesbian career development.

## Early life and education

Pope was raised in Fisk, Missouri. He pursued education at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he earned an A.B. in political science and sociology in 1973, followed by an M.Ed. in counseling and personnel services in 1974. Later, Pope obtained his Ed.D. in counseling and educational psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1989.

## Later life and Native American claims

Pope was a founding member of the non-recognized Sovereign Amonsoquth Tribe. Chief Walking Bear swore in Mark Raven Speaks Pope as a Southeastern District Cherokee Tribal Judge on April 7, 2002, in Eastwood, MO on the Amonsoquath Reservation. Isom Douglas "Hawkwatcher" Pope, his brother was present at this reservation formation meeting as a shaman. Pope and Isom Pope were founders of the St. Francis River Band of the Cherokee in the Fisk and Poplar Bluff area of Missouri where they were from. Isom Pope was a member of the National Native American Law Enforcement Assoc. "In August 2006, Pope was cited for possession of a small amount of marijuana and rolling papers while he was serving as the Iberia chief of police. He resigned immediately."

## Counselor training and writing career

Pope's early achievements, including founding his high school student council, foreshadowed significant milestones both in and out of the counseling profession. He founded the Missouri Student Lobby (now known as the Associated Students of the University of Missouri), which was the third student lobby in the United States. He also established the first gay and lesbian peer counseling program in the country, part of the Beckman House LGBT community center in Chicago.
Prior to moving into academia, he had his own career counseling and consulting firm in San Francisco for 15 years. Coming from a richly diverse cultural background, it was natural that in the culturally vibrant San Francisco Bay Area, he would hone his ideas on the role of culture in individuals' lives and careers.
During his doctoral studies, he founded the Graduate Student Council at the University of San Francisco and served as its first president. Additionally, he created Career Decisions International, the first multicultural career counseling agency in the US, and established the counseling services section of the American Indian AIDS Institute/Native American AIDS Project in San Francisco. Notably, he was elected as the first openly gay president of the American Counseling Association and founded the Professional Counseling Fund, the first federal political action committee for professional counselors.
Pope passed away on January 29, 2023, at his Missouri home.

## Awards

He was the recipient of a number of major awards in the mental health professions including the human rights awards from the American Counseling Association and the state professional counseling associations of both California and Missouri, and culminating with receiving the Eminent Career Award of the National Career Development Association in 2008, the highest award in career counseling and development in the US.
In 2018, the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) established the ALGBTIC Mark Pope Social Justice and Advocacy Award in recognition of his contributions to social justice and advocacy for the LGBT community.
The same year, the University of Missouri System awarded him The Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor given to a faculty member within the system. This award is presented annually to one faculty member selected from across the university's four campuses. In 2015, he was appointed Curators' Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, becoming only the second faculty member from the College of Education to receive this title since the campus's founding in 1953. Upon his retirement in 2018, he was designated Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus.
In 2004, Pope was included in the OUT 100 list, which recognizes notable contributions to LGBT culture. He was recognized for being the first openly gay president of a major mental health professional association, 30 years after the American Psychiatric Association removed "homosexuality" from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association), this milestone was considered significant in shifting the perception of homosexuality away from the illness model in mental health discourse..
In 2012, Pope was named NOGLSTP LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year.

## Books

* Pope, M., Gonzalez, M., Cameron, E. R. N., & Pangelinan, J. S. (Eds.) (2020). Social justice and advocacy in counseling: Experiential activities for teaching. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
* Pope, M., Flores, L. Y., & Rottinghaus, P. J. (eds.) (2014). The role of values in careers. Greensboro, NC: Information Age Publishing.
* Niles, S., Goodman, J., & Pope, M. (eds.) (2014). The career counseling casebook: A resource for students, practitioners, and counselor educators (2nd ed.). Tulsa, OK: National Career Development Association. (266 pp.)
* Dworkin, S. H., & Pope, M. (eds.) (2012). Casebook for counseling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons and their families. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. (368 pp.)
* Pope, M., & Minor, C. W. (eds.) (2011). Experiential activities for teaching career counseling classes and facilitating career groups (vol. 3). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. (350 pp.)
* Pope, M., Pangelinan, J. S., & Coker, A. D. (eds.). (2011). Experiential activities for teaching multicultural competence in counseling. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. (342 pp.)
* Singaravelu, H., & Pope, M. (eds.) (2007). Handbook for counseling international students in the United States. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. (329 pp.)
* Pope, M. (2006). Professional counseling 101: Building a strong professional identity. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. (78 pp.)
* Minor, C. W., & Pope, M. (eds.) (2005). Experiential activities for teaching career counseling classes and facilitating career groups (vol. 2). Tulsa, OK: National Career Development Association. (320 pp.)
* Niles, S., Goodman, J., & Pope, M. (eds.) (2002). The career counseling casebook: A resource for students, practitioners, and counselor educators. Tulsa, OK: National Career Development Association. (266 pp.)
* Pope, M., & Minor, C. W. (eds.) (2000). Experiential activities for teaching career counseling classes and facilitating career groups (vol. 1). Columbus, OH: National Career Development Association.