Noel Estrada-Hernández, University of Iowa College of Education counselor education departmental executive officer (DEO) and professor of rehabilitation counseling, was recently inducted into the Iowa Academy of Education (IAE).

The ceremony took place at the IAE fall 2024 meeting on the University of Northern Iowa campus.

IAE is composed of outstanding Iowa scholars whose work has earned respect and recognition among peers for making a significant contribution to the broad field of educational studies. 

Scholars are drawn from multiple fields of inquiry, including educational psychology, educational measurement, special and inclusive education, disability studies in education, instructional design, educational policy, gifted and talented education, curriculum theory and development, educational technology, science education, and more.

Membership to the Iowa Academy of Education is granted to those who show rigor and creativity in their scholarship. Inductees have outstanding scholarship related to teaching and learning.

Originally from Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, Estrada-Hernández has been a part of the UI College of Education since the early 2000s. He earned a doctorate in Rehabilitation Counselor Education in 2004, having previously earned Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Puerto Rico in 2001.

Following his Ph.D. coursework, Estrada-Hernández did a research fellowship at the UI College of Education for two years. He has served as DEO of the Department of Rehabilitation and Counselor Education, recently renamed Counselor Education, since 2017.

Estrada- Hernández’s research focuses on psychosocial adaptation to disability, or how people work with the psychological, vocational, and social implications of having a visible disability. 

He has particularly focused on individuals diagnosed with albinism. His research on albinism earned him an invitation to a roundtable on Albinism and Human Rights, sponsored by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (United Nations) in Geneva in fall of 2018. He also examines employment, counseling outcomes, and ethical decision making within the counseling practice.

He has published in top-tier journals in the counseling profession and is also the recipient of the 2007 Research Award from the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association and the 2017 Presidential Award from the National Council on Rehabilitation Education.

Estrada-Hernández is a member of numerous national professional organizations, including the American Counseling Association, American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, and the National Council on American Rehabilitation, of which he was president in 2016.

Other IAE inductees this fall were Kere Hughes-Belding, professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University, and Nicole Skaar, professor and coordinator of the School Psychology Program at the University of Northern Iowa.

UI College of Education faculty inducted in previous years include the following:

• Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education and Director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education, Nicholas Bowman;
• Professor of Special Education Allison Bruhn, also executive director of the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health
• UI College of Education Dean and Counseling Psychology Professor, Daniel L. Clay;
• Belin-Blank Center Director and Myron and Jacqueline N. Blank Endowed Chair in Gifted Education, Megan Foley Nicpon;
• Iowa Academy of Education Executive Director and Educational Leadership Professor, Liz Hollingworth;
• Departmental Executive Officer of the Department of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Multilingual Education, Lia Plakans;
• Associate Research Dean and Counseling Psychology Professor Saba Rasheed Ali;
• Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate College and Professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, Amanda Haertling Thein;
• and Higher Education and Student Affairs Professor and Director, Multicultural Initiatives Research Team, Sherry Watt.
• College of Education Associate Dean for Faculty and Graduate Education and Professor of Multilingual Education Pam Wesely

The Counseling Education Department in the UI College of Education is home to several nationally ranked programs. 

This includes the following: No. 11 Counselor Education and Supervision Program, the No. 12 School Counseling Program; and No. 3 Rehabilitation Counseling Program, according to U.S. News and World Report.

The Department of Counselor Education develops exceptional, ethical, and socially-just mental health advocates, counselors, and counselor educator for diverse and ever-changing communities.