Counseling & Diversity: Native American
Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a licensed professional counselor with more than 15 years of experience working with clients individually, as well as in couples, families, and groups. An associate professor at Eastern Michigan University, she serves as a trainer, coach, consultant, and frequent presenter on diversity and ethical issues. She also teaches in the graduate counseling program in the community counseling field in courses such as cross cultural counseling, advanced multicultural counseling, counseling skills, group work, couple and family, and counseling women. Her research and publications have focused on the areas of multicultural client issues, counselor supervision, and pedagogy. Clinically, Dr. Choudhuri specializes in cross cultural and diversity issues, as well as trauma, assault, and abuse. She carries the National Certified Counselor credential as well as the Approved Clinical Supervisor. Her clinical experience has been in agency and university settings, working with refugee populations, sexual assault and abuse survivors, and immigrant and multicultural populations. She received her master's in counseling from the University of Vermont and her Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from Syracuse University.Azara L. Santiago-Rivera, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She earned a doctorate in Counseling from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Her publications and research interests include multicultural issues in the counseling profession, bilingual therapy, Latinos and depression, and the impact of environmental contamination on the biopsychosocial well-being of Native Americans. She has presented on these topics at major conferences and has published in such journals as the Journal of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, the Journal of Counseling and Development, the Journal of Community Psychology, the Journal of College Student Development, and the journal of Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. Azara served as the Associate Dean of the School of Education for a three year term at University at Albany. She has held numerous leadership positions in professional organizations such as the Vice-President of the Latino Interest Network of the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD), and the President of Counselors for Social Justice (CSJ) within the American Counseling Association. Currently, she is a past- President of the National Latino/a Psychological Association, an American Psychological Association (APA) affiliated association. She is a Fellow of Divisions 45 and 17 of APA.