Two pre-conference Professional Development Institutes (PDIs) — both of them full-day workshops — will be offered on Thursday, April 3, at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education & Conference Center in St. Paul!

1. Multicultural Career Counseling: Providing Culturally Effective Career Services Presented by
Lisa Flores, Ph.D.

As educational and work settings are becoming more diverse, career counselors have an important role to play in meeting the unique needs of diverse clients. This workshop will focus developing knowledge, awareness, and skills for providing culturally effective career services. Participants will engage in a variety of activities to develop multicultural awareness and skills. The workshop will highlight culturally-relevant interventions, tools, and findings in the multicultural career literature and will connect these to career counseling practice. The presentation will offer ideas on ways in which career counselors can enhance and affirm the career development of their diverse clients and serve as advocates in assisting these individuals to realize their educational and career dreams.

About Lisa Flores

Lisa Y. Flores (Ph.D., U. of Missouri) is an associate professor and co-director of the Center for Multicultural Research, Training, and Consultation at the University of Missouri. She teaches multicultural and vocational psychology courses in the Counseling Psychology program. Her research focuses on the educational and career decision-making of Mexican Americans. Specifically, she has examined socio-cognitive, personal, and environmental/cultural factors related to Mexican American students’ career choices and educational goals and the role of mentors in students’ career development. She is currently involved in projects examining the educational and career choices of Mexican American college students attending a Hispanic serving institution and a predominantly White institution, and another that is examining the strategies that Latino immigrants use to build assets and to integrate into rural communities in the Midwest. Lisa has co-authored 37 journal articles and book chapters, and over 70 conference presentations. She serves as editor of the Journal of Career Development, is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Counseling Psychology and Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, and a past Editorial Board member of The Counseling Psychologist and Career Development Quarterly. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, running, watching independent films, and spending time with family and friends.

Whether you’re a private practitioner, an academic counselor, a workforce center employee, or an HR professional, the fact is that you will be serving military service members as they transition into – or back to – civilian work roles. More than 4,000 Minnesotans from the National Guard alone are in the process of rebuilding their lives after recent military service.

In this session we will look at overview issues, such as the effects of PTSD on decision-making and the role of families in the soldier’s reintegration process, before focusing on specific career counseling and job search strategies customized for veterans. The goal is to provide counselors with strategies and service models, as well as resources and background information, to enable them to provide effective and compassionate service to veterans in transition.

About Amy Lindgren and John Coffey

Amy Lindgren is the president and founder of Prototype Career Service, a 23-year-old St. Paul firm specializing in serving job seekers and career transitioners. She is the author of Job Search for Transitioning Military Personnel, used by military bases and workforce centers throughout the country, and the editor of Life after Liberation: Understanding the Former Prisoner of War, which examines the lifelong effects of PTSD on veterans and their families. She also writes a nationally-syndicated careers column which appears locally in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

John Coffey is a career counselor and the military career specialist for Prototype Career Service. A decorated Vietnam War veteran (Purple Heart, Army Medal of Commendation for Meritorious Service), John is a Nationally Certified Career Counselor. He has served as a career counselor, trainer and job club leader for the West St. Paul Workforce Center and Minnesota Teamsters Service Bureau, has managed his own career counseling firm, and is a long-time volunteer for the job club at Woodbury Lutheran Church.

Both John and Amy are experienced trainers, with literally thousands of presentations between them, to both clients and professionals in the counseling field.