The National Board for Certified Counselors is now accepting nominations for the 2025 NBCC Awards. The awards aim to celebrate counseling professionals whose work has significantly impacted the counseling profession.

They seek to enrich NBCC’s mission to advance counseling and equitable access to mental health services worldwide through certification, assessment, advocacy, and capacity-building by expanding equity through inspiration.

During the 2024 NBCC Awards luncheon and ceremony held at the 2024 NBCC Foundation Bridging the Gap Symposium, Dr. Kylie Dotson-Blake, NBCC’s President and CEO, shared that the NBCC Awards help the counseling community celebrate colleagues, mentors, and educators.

“These awards are a wonderful opportunity to recognize counselors and allies of the counseling profession for their dedication to increasing equitable access to counseling, serving the community, and advancing the counseling profession," Dr. Dotson-Blake says.

Created for counselors, by counselors, the awards highlight professionals whose work has helped expand access to mental health services, promote equity in health and education, and advance the counseling profession and counselors around the world.

NBCC created these awards to honor the achievements of counselors who aren’t recognized in other spaces, like servant leadership and powering the future through school counseling.

Meredith Rausch, PhD, NCC, is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education and Director of Admissions at Augusta University. She received the 2024 NBCC Servant Leadership Award and says the awards elevate counselors in meaningful categories.

“It is amazing because service is rarely recognized in the counseling field, especially in our job,” she says. “Research and teaching come far above service. But for me, service should be the foundation of everything you do, right? Like, that’s why I’m a counselor. I want to serve others.”

Denise Hawkins, a counselor in Gwinnett County Schools in Grayson, Georgia, was honored with the Propelling Mental Health, Powering the Future: School Counseling Award. Hawkins says the award validates the essential work of all school counselors.

“As school counselors, we have to wear so many hats. Academics is pretty much the thing that is pushed, you know, getting them to graduate,” she says. “We often don’t get recognized for propelling mental health in our students. We all know if they’re not healthy, mentally or emotionally, the academic piece is not going to fall in line.”

With the 2025 NBCC Awards comes a brand-new category, the Global Advancement of Counseling, which recognizes counselors and organizations who have advanced the profession through global engagement.

As the counseling profession continues to evolve in countries around the world, NBCC is dedicated to empowering those who are eradicating mental health stigma and making mental health care resources more widely available.

“We are really excited to have this opportunity to celebrate individuals who are creating change for counselors and the profession,” Dotson-Blake says.

Award winners will receive an honorarium; free registration for the NBCC Foundation’s 2025 Bridging the Gap Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, from Feb. 28–March 1; the opportunity to be featured in NBCC Visions; and an award plaque. Awardees will also be honored at a special awards luncheon during the 2025 Bridging the Gap Symposium on March 1.

The application deadline for all awards is Oct. 13, 2024, at 11:59 pm EDT. You can find details for each category and nomination forms at nbcc.org/awards. 2025 NBCC Award updates and announcements will be shared in future NBCC Visions issues and on NBCC’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Each 2024 NBCC Award winner shares their story on NBCC’s YouTube channel.