Allison Levine, an assistant professor in the University of Iowa College of Education’s Department of Counselor Education, was recently named recipient of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association’s (ARCA) 2026 Research Award.
The award was the result of a Levine-led research team that collaborated to produce “A Content Analysis of Professional Development in Social Justice and Diversity in Rehabilitation Counselor Education,” an article that ARCA recognized for its contribution to the field of rehabilitation counseling.
“Receiving this award is really exciting, especially because the team that wrote this piece represents a wide array of scholar identities including queer, disabled, international, and female scholars. Personally, I feel proud that this piece was inspired by a desire to understand the professional development offerings available to our profession, and to identify areas for improvement in the area of social justice, says Levine.
“Ultimately, improving our inclusive and social justice-related PD will mean rehabilitation counselors and educators who are better equipped to serve folks with all manner of identities and experiences, and to support impactful changes through the counseling process.”
The following excerpt is from the article’s abstract:
“The Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC) Code of Ethics has historically emphasized the importance of cultural competency for rehabilitation counselors. The newly revised Code explicitly delineates the ethical imperative of Certified Rehabilitation Counselors (CRCs) to maintain personal awareness of anti-ableism, antiracism, social justice, cultural humility, and other central facets of socially just practice. Rehabilitation counselors must be exposed to social justice and diversity content during their training to meet the needs of disabled people and these ethical mandates. Professional conferences are a primary avenue to receive training related to social justice for counselors as well as the educators who provide pre-service training. The current study explores the social justice and diversity-related content provided to rehabilitation counselor educators through the National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE) annual conferences. Analysis of 1,137 conference sessions from 2014 to 2019 revealed that just under a third of the sessions in the selected conferences presented content that reflected multicultural competence, social justice, or social justice for a minoritized group of individuals.”
Levine, who is also the program coordinator of the college’s nationally ranked Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling program, was formally recognized at ARCA’s Award Ceremony, which took place at the association’s conference on April 8 in Columbus, Ohio.