ODU Professor Recognized by Inside Business
November 28, 2018
Emily Goodman-Scott
By Tyler Forrest
In less than five years, Emily Goodman-Scott has been recognized as an influential faculty member at Old Dominion University. This fall, she was the recipient of a "Top Forty Under 40" award from Inside Business. The citation highlights the work and service by top professionals in Hampton Roads who are under age 40.
She joins a group of previous Darden College of Education and Professional Studies award winners, including Narketta Sparkman-Key.
As an assistant professor, graduate program director and school counseling coordinator in the nationally recognized department of counseling and human services, Goodman-Scott teaches graduate courses, conducts research on school counseling, is an active member of local and national committees, contributes to both textbooks and academic journals, and is a recognized leader in the community, university and counseling profession.
"I enjoy advocating through my research, including topics like schoolwide prevention, universal mental-health screening and school counseling ratios," said Goodman-Scott, the mother of three children under the age of 5. "I'm honored to be recognized by the place I've called home for so many years: Hampton Roads. Here I spent much of my childhood, then came back to pursue a career in academia and raise my young family."
In her nomination letter, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies & Research Gail Dickerson lauded Goodman-Scott for her vision, leadership, innovation and strategies for success through academic endeavors.
"First, the essence of academia in a research-intensive university like ODU is the creation of new knowledge, which demonstrates innovation," Dickerson said. "Dr. Goodman-Scott has created new knowledge and shown innovation through her scholarly efforts, such as leading research teams to conduct and publish original research."
By focusing her research on school counseling, Goodman-Scott has quickly become an expert on the skills and environment needed for counselors to be effective.
"While working in the schools, I saw firsthand the importance of school counselors helping K-12 students be successful in their academic, career and social/emotional efforts," Goodman-Scott said. "I also saw that school counselors are often tasked with unreasonably high student caseloads and inappropriate job duties. Thus, I decided to pursue a doctorate and a faculty position to advocate for the school counseling profession to help counselors better serve students and schools."
Most recently, she conducted more than 20 workshops for local school counselors and teachers to further their professional skills. Goodman-Scott is also beginning her ninth year as a board member for the Virginia School Counselor Association.
Goodman-Scott said one of the areas she enjoys the most about her job is mentoring graduate students and serving on dissertations. Many of her students - both master's and doctoral level - have assisted in research efforts, even being cited as co-authors.
"Dr. Goodman-Scott has been a prolific scholar and her potential for continuing her significant trajectory as a scholar is most promising," said Dean Jane Bray of the Darden College. "Her scholarly work has already impacted our program and in addition, her work is having an impact at the state and national level."
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