Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Certified School Counselor, Associate Professor of Counselor Education — College of Education
Education, K 12 Education, School Counseling, Youth Mental Health
At A Glance
Mental health significantly impacts a student’s ability to focus, learn and perform academically, and early mental health support lays a strong foundation for positive personal development, participation and academic achievement. Amanda Rumsey is an advocate of prioritizing mental health in education. Her research shows mental health support helps schools create enriching environments and that broader communities benefit by schools addressing the social, emotional and mental health needs of students. Her work highlights the importance of training and skill development in areas such as trauma, suicide intervention and addiction.
Bio
Amanda Rumsey’s research centers around topics related to suicide, substance misuse and trauma, with an emphasis on counselor training and preparation, as well as school-based counseling, with a focus on supporting student social, emotional and mental health needs of children and adolescents. Within these themes, she explores topics and conducts research that informs counseling practice and supports counseling work with underserved and vulnerable populations. Employing quantitative and qualitative methods, she investigates issues that inform pedagogy and promote the development and practice of professional counselors. Her current and previous funded work includes collaborative partnerships with multiple schools, agencies and community partnerships.
Along with being a presenter, Rumsey has many publications, including “Dropout prevention and trauma: Addressing a wide range of stressors that inhibit student success,” “Parentification as a social determinant of health: Implications for school counselors,” and “Addressing the social and emotional needs of refugee adolescents in schools: Learning from the experiences of school counselors.”
She is a nationally certified counselor (NCC), a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and certified school counselor and an active member of several professional organizations including the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES), the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC), the American School Counselor Association and the Palmetto State School Counseling Association (PSSCA). She is also a Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor and Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Her clinical background includes school and mental health counseling with adolescents and their families in a variety of programs, including outdoor residential treatment, wilderness therapy, hospital settings and rural, suburban, and urban school settings.
As a technical assistance consultant for the Behavior Alliance of South Carolina — a part of SC TEAMS in collaboration with the S.C. Department of Education and Clemson University’s College of Education, Rumsey serves as the mental health consultant. She also serves as the project leader on a $5.8 million project with Greenville County Schools to positively affect the ratio of students to school counselors in the district. Before joining Clemson, she worked as a graduate research assistant at Georgia State University and as a school counselor in the DeKalb County School District, Wake County Public School System and Chatham County School District.
It’s important that from the top down, a culture of belonging is created, so that kids want to go to school. They know that their needs are being looked after. They know that they have support, and they know that it’s a place where they belong.
When we recognize the need for mental health support and provide that need, we can help kids to be able to take in material better, to be able to learn, to be able to think and their cognitive processing be clearer.
