The California Association of School Counselors selected Paul De Sena, a professor of counselor education in the LMU School of Education, as the 2013 Counselor Advocate of the Year. The award recognizes De Sena for his long-term leadership and advocacy for school counseling and school counselor education.
An LMU faculty member since 1966, De Sena is the former chair of the Department of Education and director of the School Counseling program. Earlier this year, De Sena was inducted into Stanford University’s H.B. McDaniel Hall of Fame, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the counseling profession. In 1999, De Sena received the H.B. McDaniel Counseling Award, the most prestigious counseling award in the state of California. He also received the 2000 Clarion Modell Distinguished Service Award and 2011 Outstanding Service Award from the California Counseling Association, and has been recognized for his leadership and many contributions to the counseling profession in California by the Western Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors with their 2002 Outstanding Mentorship Award and 2010 Outstanding Service Award.
During his career De Sena has helped shape the school counseling profession in the state, having held an array of statewide leadership positions including president of the California Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors (CACES), president of the California Association for Specialists in Group Work (CASGW) and board member of the California Coalition for Counselor Licensure (CCCL), which was successful in bringing licensure for professional counselors to in the state in 2009. He served on the Executive Council and the Educational Foundation Board of the California Counseling Association (CCA) and on the Governing Board of the California Association of School Counselors (CASC) as the counselor educator representative.