Faculty to serve as rare back-to-back presidents of international counseling assessment, research association

Starting next year, Clemson counselor education faculty members will serve back-to-back leadership appointments in a national assessment and research association. Amanda Rumsey, associate professor in the College, will serve as president-elect for the Association of Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) for the 2025-26 year, a position currently occupied by Ryan Cook, also an associate professor in the College.

This unprecedented, consecutive selection of leadership in the AARC means that Clemson faculty members will have an outsized impact on the counseling profession’s assessment, research and evaluation efforts over the next several years. The AARC is the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) assessment and research arm, making it a highly regarded association in the counseling profession.

Rumsey said she will undoubtedly lean on Cook as a colleague at Clemson and within the AARC, and she looks forward to making connections with all the leadership within the AARC and the ACA.

“Any opportunity like this allows me to continue growing as a leader,” Rumsey said. “I know I will face challenges, but I feel good about having other leaders who have laid a strong foundation and will support me as I step into this role.”

Rumsey said the AARC has been a consistent source of professional support since she first joined the association in 2013. She entered the field of counselor education after practicing school counseling for 14 years and seeing the need for helpful counseling assessments, practice-driven research, evidence-based practices and program evaluation skills. Rumsey said she grew as a researcher and counselor by connecting with and learning from other researchers in the AARC.

Cook joined AARC in 2016, serving as a member of an assessment committee, and said he also found the AARC to be a source of valuable professional support. As president-elect, he has deeply enjoyed the opportunity to work more closely and with a more significant number of division members. As he prepares to become president in July 2025, he is honored to serve in the position.

“The AARC immediately felt like my professional ‘home,'” Cook said. “I feel particularly humbled with amazing people who volunteer their time and expertise as members of committees and the executive council.” 

Cook said the AARC’s work has never been more important as society continues to contend with a mental health crisis that was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said counselors – often under-resourced regardless of setting – are increasingly called on to work with people from all backgrounds. AARC training and resources allow counseling researchers to share innovative and meaningful work, increasing counselors’ success.

Cook said members of AARC possess collective expertise to address challenges in the profession and are uniquely positioned to work with the other divisions of ACA to develop solutions and to serve clients, students and counselors better. Cook’s research interests in clinical supervision, issues of counselor development and client-focused care have flourished thanks to fellow researchers in the AARC, to the point where he said it would be impossible to imagine his career without the association since most of his work is directly tied to it.

Rumsey hopes to use her expertise to expand opportunities for emerging scholars and practitioners, foster interdisciplinary collaborations, enhance the AARC’s role in shaping evidence-based counseling practices and policies and strengthen its organizational infrastructure to support long-term growth. 

When Cook passes the “presidential baton” to Rumsey in 2026, they hope to show that regardless of the home institution, the AARC and all counselors benefit because of knowledge sharing and collaboration instead of one person’s skill set.

“As an organization, we have worked to continuously grow and evolve with the needs of our constituents, and I think that has been a priority for every leader before me and should be for anyone that follows,” Rumsey said, “but of course, it is helpful to already be in meetings with the president who’s serving right before me.”

Rumsey was chosen as an AARC emerging leader in 2018 and elected as the treasurer in 2023. She will complete her term as treasurer and become president-elect this summer. The AARC elected Cook to its executive council as secretary in 2018. While in this role, he assisted with by-law revisions and worked to create research-focused training for graduate students. He was elected as president-elect in 2024 and will begin as the president in July 2025.