Counseling psychology doctoral student wins McBee Award

College of Education doctoral student Jasmine Jenkins is the most recent recipient of the annual Louise McBee Award.

The award is one more in a series of honors that have been bestowed upon Jenkins in recent years. The Louise McBee Award, which highlights excellent achievement in scholarship and service, was given earlier this month during the Georgia Psychological Association Conference in Athens. Jenkins was selected by faculty in the College's counseling psychology program.

Last year, Jenkins received an Image Award by the NAACP, which recognizes students, faculty and community members who have shown a commitment to social justice, diversity and equality in the local community. In 2016, Jenkins was honored by UGA's Black Faculty and Staff Organization's Founders Day Awards and also received the Gazda Award from the College of Education's department of counseling and human development services.

Much of her clinical work focuses on helping black youth, and she is passionate about mitigating the school-to-prison pipeline. Her dissertation research focuses on evaluating racial identity and behavior in incarcerated black youth.

Jenkins received her undergraduate degree from Spelman College and her master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

The award's namesake, Louise McBee, held a 25-year tenure at UGA where she served as dean of women, dean of students and assistant vice president for instruction. In 1991, McBee was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where she served six terms and chaired the Higher Education Committee fro 2002-2004.

Also at this year's Georgia Psychological Association Conference, three College of Education graduate students won first place in the organization's student poster competition. Marlaine Monroig, Lindsay Krause and Grace Mahoney presented a poster on modern-day slavery (human trafficking) and its reach in the areas of human rights advocacy, service providers and policy makers.

Mental health services in this area is vital, said Monroig, but there is little research on the issue. "It is vital for mental health fields to consolidate what is currently known with what is currently being done in order to adequately inform treatment," said Monroig, who first collaborated on the project with Krause. "With the assistance of Grace Ellen Mahoney, the team of three analyzed over 30 content categories and over 100 articles. We also examined how trafficking is defined."

They are now completing final analysis and will write a paper to submit to journals by early summer.

All three researchers are doctoral students in the department of counseling and human development services and are part of the BIEN research team led by professor Edward Delgado-Romero.

"An increase in knowledge related to human trafficking research can be practically applied to improve services, change policies and engage survivors in the process of recovery," Monroig added. "This knowledge could also serve to inform the practice of anti-trafficking programs nationally, including community mental health clinics, faith-based institutions, political advocates, community educators, medical providers, and law enforcement agencies."