Erin Lane, University of Iowa school counseling and counselor education and supervision clinical assistant professor, received the 2024 School Counselor Advocate of the Year Award from the Iowa School Counselor Association (ISCA).The award recognizes an individual or group whose advocacy of school counseling services has had a positive effect on school counseling on a local, state or national level. Nominees can be current or past school counselors, principals, parents, school board members, legislators, or state or local organizations that have advocated or provided opportunities for professional school counselors.

Lane, who joined the UI College of Education Department of Counselor Education in 2022, has worked in K-12 and graduate-level education throughout Iowa and Western Illinois for more than two decades. 

Her areas of research include school counselor professional identity, the use of data in schools to advocate for historically marginalized students, and school counselor collaboration to improve student mental health outcomes.

Her nominator, Laura Gallo, school counseling associate professor, wrote, “I believe Dr. Lane exemplifies who an advocate is and what an advocate does – as evidenced by her strong record of service. This award describes the recipient as someone whose advocacy of school counseling services has had a positive effect on school counseling on a local, state, or national level. Erin is someone who has had a positive effect on the profession at all three levels.”

Lane has served as the Counselor Education representative on the ISCA board for four years. In this role, she has advocated for fellow school counselor educators and current and future school counselors, Gallo noted. 

“Advocating for these individuals and the profession benefits K-12 youth and families,” Gallo writes. “Erin has worked tirelessly for the profession of school counseling in numerous ways throughout her career, in fact, it is impossible to list all that she has done and accomplished in one nomination letter.

Gallo adds that as a colleague of Lane, she has witnessed and benefited from her willingness to lead school counselor educators across the state. 

“She has coordinated monthly meetings where she focuses on advocacy efforts such as legislative items, ethical issues, recruitment efforts, and professional development,” Gallo says. “These meetings have been incredibly helpful as we train the next generation of school counselors and help prepare them for the field.”

She adds that Lane was also active in writing the white papers after the last legislative session. 

“These papers were very important in informing school counselors across the state in how to interpret the mandates,” Gallo writes. 

In addition to the white papers, Lane was a pivotal part of connecting ISCA to a group of law students and faculty from the UI who are also helping to inform school counselors on how to interpret some of the mandates on a day-to-day basis in their school settings.

Another example of Lane’s advocacy is her support of new school counselors. 

“She provided zoom-based Q&A/supervision groups throughout the 2023-24 school year,” Gallo wrote. “She has also presented on advocacy and legal/ethical issues at state and national school counseling conferences numerous times over the past few years.”

At the national level, Lane has also been very active in the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). She has been a member of the ASCA Position Statements Review Committee since 2022, spending many hours meeting and reviewing the documents that provide a framework for the profession. 

Similarly, she has also served on ASCA’s Ethical Standards Review Committee multiple times since 2021. For the Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors, Erin has been part of the anti-racist school counseling work group and professional identity workgroups since 2020. 

Lane received the award at the ISCA 2024 Annual Conference in Des Moines Nov. 4.

The School Counseling and Counselor Education and Supervision Programs are both part of the Counseling Education Department in the UI College of Education, 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.