Advisory Board

Dr. J. Scott Young, Ph.D., NCC, LCMHC, is a Professor within the Department of Counseling and Educational Development and the Dean’s Fellow of Innovation for the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He served as Department Chair from 2010 to 2018. He provides executive coaching and leadership development at the Center for Creative Leadership and for Pilgrimage Professional Development Group. Dr. Young’s leadership in the counseling field has included service as past-president of the Association for Spiritual Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling, as a member of the Governing Council and Executive Committee for the American Counseling Association. His scholarly efforts include the publication of numerous articles on the interface of counseling practice with spirituality and religion; editorial service to the Journal of Counseling and Development, Counseling and Values, and Counselor Education and Supervision, among others; co-editorship of the book Integrating Spirituality into Counseling: A Guide to Competent Practice, the text Counseling Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Single Subject Design and the recently published Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Elements of Effective Practice. Awards Dr. Young has received for his work include the American Counseling Association Fellow; the Meritorious Service Award from the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling; and the Administrator of the Year from the North Carolina Counseling Association. 

Dr. Steven J. Sandage, Ph.D., LP, is the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology with appointments in the School of Theology and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. He is also Research Director and Senior Staff Psychologist at the Danielsen Institute and also Visiting Faculty in Psychology of Religion at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society in Oslo. His recent books with the American Psychological Association (APA) include: Forgiveness and Spirituality in Psychotherapy; Relational Spirituality in Psychotherapy; and Spiritual Diversity in Psychotherapy. He also practices as a Licensed Psychologist at the Danielsen Institute with clinical specializations that include couple and family therapy, multicultural therapy, and spiritually-integrative therapy.  

Dr. Janeé Avent Harris is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Counselor Education program (Department of Interdisciplinary Professions) at East Carolina University. Dr. Avent Harris’ research agenda and clinical interests examine cultural and contextual factors that contribute to the intersection of religion, spirituality and mental health. Her work seeks to understand the ways that religion and spirituality impact African Americans' mental health attitudes and help-seeking behaviors. She has authored/co-authored 30+ publications in peer-reviewed journals and has given 100+ talks/presentations. She is an elected Board member for the Association for Spiritual Religious and Ethical Values in Counseling and is currently Chairing the ASERVIC Competencies Research Task Force. Dr. Avent Harris has been asked to lend her expertise and consultation to various local and national organizations, spiritual leaders, programs, and media outlets. 

Dr. Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and the newly published The Awakened Brain. She is a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University; Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology; and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Jesse Owen is a Professor in the Counseling Psychology Department at the University of Denver. He is a licensed psychologist with clinical specializations that include couple and family therapy and multicultural therapy. He holds various positions including lead psychologist at Lifelong, Inc; Research Director for CelestHealth; Senior Research Advisor for SonderMind; and Editor for Psychotherapy. He has co-authored three books: Mindfulness-Based Practices in Therapy: A Cultural Humility Approach; Therapists’ Cultural Humility; and Research Design in Counseling. He also has over 180 publications/book chapters. His research focuses on the process and outcomes of psychotherapy with a focus on therapist expertise and multicultural orientation. His research has been supported by foundations, federal agencies, and private companies (e.g., John Templeton Foundation, NIMH, DHHS-ACF, and SonderMind). 

Dr. Altaf Husain serves as an Associate Professor and chair of the Community, Administration and Policy Practice concentration in the Howard University School of Social Work, in Washington, D.C. In addition to teaching macro social work courses, he has primary teaching responsibilities within the MSW program for the Displaced Populations field of practice specialization, which includes social work practice with individuals experiencing homelessness and natural and human-caused disasters, as well as with immigrants and refugees. He also teaches the Pro-Seminar: Communities and Organizations course in the Ph.D. program. He serves on the editorial board and served as a guest editor of a double issue on “Islam in the 21st century,” for the Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Mental Health, Religion & Culture. His professional involvement includes serving as a co-chair of the Islam and Muslims track of the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE); founder and co-chair of the Immigrants and Refugees cluster of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR); a former co-chair of the Race, Ethnicity and Immigration cluster of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR); and member of the SSWR membership committee and a founding member of the CSWE Religion and Spirituality Working Group. Dr. Husain was selected as a SSWR Fellow in 2020. He also serves as a member of the National Ethics Committee of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Dr. Husain’s community involvement includes serving currently as founding Vice President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research (YIIR), a member of the founding board of directors of The Conscious Kid Library, a former Vice President and then two-term national President of the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA National), and Vice President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He also serves as an advisory board member of the Peaceful Families Project (PFP), dedicated to preventing domestic violence.

Dr. Kimberly Hardy is on faculty at the Fayetteville State University School of Social Work where she teaches in the BSW and MSW programs. Her teaching focuses on macro social work practice through community organizing and policy analysis as well as research and statistics. Her scholarship focuses on the integration of religion and spirituality in social work practice and research with a particular emphasis on the role of the Black Church for its members. She is currently President of the Society for Spirituality and Social Work and has served on the Council on Social Work Education’s Spirituality Summit. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought. Related to her focus on spirituality, Dr. Hardy also has an interest in public health and the ways in which churches in the Black community serve as de facto public health spaces. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Social Work in Public Health.