The results of the 2020 APEX Awards for Publication Excellence have been released, and members of both the NBCC Communications Department and the editorial staff of The Professional Counselor (TPC), NBCC’s peer-reviewed journal, received multiple awards for their work.

The annual APEX Awards for Publication Excellence are awarded through a competition distinguishing excellence in publications based on merit in graphic design, editorial content, and overall communication. The competition is sponsored by Communications Concepts, Inc., a company that helps professionals in the fields of publishing, public relations, and marketing improve their publications and communications programs through business writing and communications consulting services and reports.

This was the first year that the NBCC Communications team has entered the competition, and they brought home three awards for work done in 2019:

• Newsletters—Most Improved, for NBCC Visions
• Design & Illustration—Posters, Displays, & Calendars, for NBCC’s ACA 2020 panel banner
• Writing—Interviews & Personal Profiles, for the NBCC Visions feature on counselor and domestic violence prevention advocate Christy Sims

“I am absolutely thrilled to have my team recognized this year,” says Nikki Yannone, MS, EdS, NCC, LPCA, Director of Communications at NBCC. “I am constantly blown away by their tireless dedication, their creativity, and their enthusiasm to drive our organization forward with innovative ideas.”

TPC, NBCC’s open-access, online academic journal, added four awards—and an eighth consecutive year—to their APEX Award record:

• Grand Award, for TPC Volume 9, Issue 4
• Electronic Media—Special Purpose, for TPC Digest Volume 9, Issue 4
• Design & Illustration—Design & Layout, for TPC Digest Volume 9, Issue 4
• Most Improved Website, for TPC’s website, tpcjournal.nbcc.org

The APEX Grand Award is awarded to the top 100 entries. This year’s field of applicants contained just under 1,200 entries, making the Grand Award representative of just 8% of submissions. Selected judges’ remarks are made available to winners of the Grand Awards, and TPC received a valuable review for this year’s winning entry, Volume 9, Issue 4 of the journal:

This peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to research on topics relevant to professional counseling. A look at the table of contents for this particular issue made this judge appreciate the breadth of topics covered. Even the layperson will be able to understand the content on such a wide variety of important topics such as compassion fatigue. . . the relationship between vicarious trauma (VT) and PTSD. . . high school counselors and predictors of college enrollment . . . and the effects of labels on counselor attitudes and empathy. Any form of patient care is a huge challenge, but mental illness and its lack of easily identifiable symptoms makes this journal extremely relevant.

Catherine Clifton, Director of Professional Resources, who serves as TPC’s managing editor, said she was humbled by this year’s awards and the judges’ comments.

“Staying on the front edge of counseling research and providing an up-to-date, varied, and reliable resource to counselors, counseling students, counselor educators, and the general public is the main mission of our journal,” she says. “Being recognized for continuing to achieve our goals is humbling and a great credit to our fantastic editorial team and our brilliant authors.”

“It is such an honor to work with this group,” Yannone says. “I am delighted to watch us continue to evolve. We are already working hard on new and exciting opportunities to connect with our board certified counselors.”