School of Education

Dr. Rita Chi-Ying Chung Recipient of the American Counseling Association Kitty Cole Human Rights Award

Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Ph.D, professor at the Counseling and Development Program of George Mason University was recently honored by the American Counseling Association as winner of the Kitty Cole Human Rights Award. The Kitty Cole Human Rights Award honors an ACA member who has made significant contributions in one or more areas of the broad spectrum of human rights. The Award was presented at ACA's annual conference in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. Chung graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and in 1990 Dr Chung was awarded the New Zealand Medical Research Council (MRC — now known as the Health Research Council) Public Health Oversea Fellowship and arrived in the U.S. to do her overseas postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was the project director for the first United States national study examining mental health issues of Chinese Americans. This study was a $1.5 million grant awarded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Chung was the organizer for the first Southeast Asian Re-Education Camp Detainee and torture survivors' conference which was funded by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Chung was formerly an adjunct faculty at the Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and also worked as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington, DC. Prior to being a Professor at George Mason University she was a faculty member at Ohio State University. Dr. Chung has over 80 publications in professional journals and book chapters in major psychology and counseling textbooks as well as a co-authored book on refugees. Her most recent co-authored book is entitled Social Justice Counseling: The Next Steps Beyond Multiculturalism. Her research focuses on multicultural, cross-cultural, and social justice issues in counseling; the psychological impact of racism; immigrant and refugee psychosocial adjustment and adaptation; the interrelationship of academic achievement and psychological stress on students of color; and interethnic race relationships. Her recent research is on trafficking Asian girls into commercial sex work. Given her work on child trafficking, Dr. Chung was invited to present at the United Nations in New York on cultural perspectives on children trafficking, human rights, and social justice.

Dr. Chung's is also involved with the Counselors Without Borders and has co-led and co-supervised teams and groups of students working along the Mississippi Gulf coast three months after Hurricane Katrina, and on American Indian reservations and Latino migrant communities after the San Diego Wildfires. Her post-disaster human rights work also includes consultation and training in Thailand after the Tsunami, in Burma after Cyclone Nargis, and in Haiti after the earthquake. Dr. Chung has worked throughout the United States as well as in the Asia, the Pacific Rim region, the U.K., Europe, Africa, and South America.

Dr. Chung has served as chair of American Counseling Association International Committee and Co-Chair of American Counseling Association Human Rights Committee. She is the recipient of multiple awards including: The Counselors for Social Justice O'hana Honors Award for her work on social justice, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development Kitty Cole Human Rights Award, the Southern Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors Courtland Lee Social Justice Award, and the Association for the Specialist in Group Work Professional Advancement Award.

Founded in 1952 and headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the American Counseling Association is the world's largest private, not-for-profit organization for professional counselors. Dedicated to promoting public confidence and trust in the counseling profession, the American Counseling Association provides leadership training, continuing education, and advocacy services for its more than 50,000 members. For more information on the American Counseling Association, visit www.counseling.org.