Marsha McDonald
2007-08 Counselor of the Year

Marsha McDonald has been an elementary school counselor in the La Mesa – Spring Valley School District since 1986 and is currently a counselor at Bancroft Elementary School. Marsha created and implemented the highly successful elementary counseling program in the district and remains a staunch supporter of elementary school counseling across the State. Marsha’s exceptional efforts in designing, implementing, and sustaining a comprehensive, developmental school counseling program, which provides services to the entire school community, supports the creation of a positive school climate allowing all students to achieve at the highest level.

Marsha cares deeply about all students, but has developed specialties in the areas of children with attention deficit disorders and the gifted population. She has facilitated a parent support group for families throughout the East County of San Diego for children with ADD/ADHD for many years.

Marsha is a district crisis team member, a True Colors Extensive Facilitator on ADHD, Parent Education and Gifted Children. She is also a member of the San Diego County Office of Education task force which forms guidelines for guidance programs. Marsha has been recognized in various capacities including the San Diego County Counselor of the Year award and the 9th District PTA Honorary Service Award in 1993, and the Sweetwater Springs Community Peace Award in 1997. Marsha received her teaching credential from California State University, Northridge, her PPS credential and MFCC from the University of San Diego, and completed her graduate studies in School Psychology at Chapman University. Marsha is an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and a founding member of the San Diego County School Counselors Association.

Donald G. Hays, Counselor of the Year Award
Recognition of one’s exceptional work by their peers is a distinguished honor for any individual to receive. CASC officially acknowledges the outstanding work of school counselors through the Donald G. Hays Counselor of the Year Award. The inspiration for this award emanates from our esteemed colleague Donald G. Hays, Ph.D.  whose career in counseling spanned over 40 years. Dr. Hays designed, developed, and implemented a Student Guidance System, a forerunner to the ASCA National Standards. Don had a long history of being involved with local, state, regional, and national professional associations and served as president on numerous executive boards and panels. Dr. Hays was inducted into the H.B. McDaniel Foundation Hall of Fame by Stanford University in 1995 and was honored with the lifetime Achievement Award, which is bestowed upon an individual for their commitment in the education of future generations.

The Counselor of the Year designation recognizes annually one practicing school counselor throughout the state who embodies the spirit of Don Hays by enthusiastically implementing a comprehensive student support program and has shown exceptional efforts in the field of school counseling. Nominees are considered in relation to the innovations, activities, support, mentoring, and successful implementation of a comprehensive student support program including organizing and facilitating a student support program that is developmental in scope and comprehensive in design.

Van W. Riley, Ph.D.
2007-08 Administrator of the Year

Van Riley has been Superintendent of the Huntington Beach Union High School District since July 1, 2003.  Prior to that time he served as Superintendent in Ojai Unified School District for three years and as Superintendent of Carpinteria Unified School District for six years. From 1980 to 1995, Dr. Riley served in the San Dieguito Union High School District as teacher, assistant principal, principal, Director of Pupil Personnel Services, and as Assistant Superintendent for Personnel.

Dr. Riley knows the value of school counselors. After arriving at Huntington Beach Union High School District, and realizing that none of the six comprehensive high schools had school counselors, Dr. Riley put committees and money in motion to develop a “Student Support System.” He successfully obtained a Student Support Specialist position and implemented an “academy class” where at-risk students would receive counseling and academic support. With the passage of AB 1802, Dr. Riley and his team immediately put a plan in place and hired seven credentialed school counselors to expand the existing counseling support within the district. This was the first time since 1981 that all of the schools in Huntington Beach Union High School District had a full time credentialed school counselor. Dr. Riley continues to champion for student support services in his district which now proudly employs 18 school counselors to support its students. Dr. Riley is known by his staff for his courage, integrity, and leadership ability; as someone who cares about people first and knows how to support all students and staff.

Dr. Riley is a native Californian, born and raised in the San Jose area.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara and teaching credential from UCLA.  His M.A. in Education Administration was completed at San Diego State University and his Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara. He has been married for 36 years to his wife, Mary, a Santa Monica native.  They have two children, Sarah and Matt, and two adorable granddaughters, Isabella and Charlotte.

Rosemary Rubin
Exceptional Service Award

Rosemary Rubin has served public education students for the past 35 years working in the capacity of teacher, school counselor, program coordinator and organization facilitator in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has championed school counselor causes for the past 20 years, serving in various leadership roles in the American School Counselor Association, California Association of School Counselors, Inc. and the California School Counselor Association. She has presided over numerous committees including chairing the Crisis Response Task Force for the American School Counselor Association at a very critical time from 1998 – 2000 when school shootings had increased significantly.

Rosemary is best known for her work in suicide prevention and has been called on to lend her expertise to countless numbers of individuals throughout the United States. Her portfolio includes numerous presentations, trainings and workshops provided on the topics of trauma, grief, school violence, school site crisis teams, crisis intervention and youth suicide prevention. Selected media and publications that have referenced her thoughts and work include HBO; Channel One-KCLS; KPFK (90.7) FM, Los Angeles, CA; SBS Radio, Sydney, Australia; KZLA  (93.5) FM Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles Times; La Opinion; Oakland Tribune; San Diego Union-Tribune; Daily Herald, Illinois; Chicago Tribune; Time; Learning; ASCA Counselor; NEA Today; American School Board Association; CNN.Com/Career. She has been a contributor to several publications,  including A Quick Reference Guide of School Crisis Management and Bully Prevention Reference Guide for Los Angeles Unified School District. She also played a role in the publication, Caution: Crisis Ahead, A Crisis Counseling Handbook published by the California Association of Counseling and Development. In the last 10 years she has been recognized by several organizations including: the Los Angeles County Office of Education - Life Saver Award; the ICAN Award for outstanding work in suicide prevention; and the H.B. McDaniel Group Award for her Leadership in Crisis Intervention Training.

Suzy Thomas, Ph.D.
2007-08 Counselor Advocate of the Year

Dr. Suzy Thomas is a former middle and high school counselor who earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of California, Davis. She is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Counseling Program at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she teaches Law, Ethics, & Values, Group Theory & Practice, and two courses within the school counseling specialization. She also leads teams of graduate students in action research projects within K-12 schools in the East Bay; and this year, Suzy is the Co-Chair of the 2nd California School Counseling Research Summit, much of which focuses on collaborative action research. Suzy also facilitates the school counselor alumni peer consultation group, which meets five times per year to focus on professional development. Suzy presents regularly at CASC and WACES (Western Association of Counselor Education and Supervision) conferences, and has publications in the areas of mentoring, collaboration, legal and ethical issues in counseling, and school counseling reform.

Senator Darrell Steinberg
2007-08 Legislator of the Year

Darrell Steinberg was elected in 2006 to the California State Senate, representing the 6th District, which includes Sacramento, parts of Elk Grove and Citrus Heights. He is the chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.  He also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Health Committee, the Environmental Quality Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee and Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Resources.  Steinberg also chairs the Senate Select Committee on High School Graduation. He is the author and co-proponent of Proposition 63, the mental health initiative that was approved by more than 5.6 million California voters on November 2, 2004.  Prop 63 generates more than $1 billion per year in state and federal funds to establish mental health programs throughout the state.
Steinberg has authored over 70 state laws that cover a wide range of vital public policy issues.  Some of his most notable work is as follows:

• The first significant expansion for community mental health programs in more than a decade.  AB 34 (Chapter 617, 1999) provided $10 million for Community Mental Health Demonstration Grants to serve homeless adults who are severely mentally ill.  Follow-up bills, AB 2034 (Chapter 518, 2000) and AB 334 (Chapter 454, 2001), expanded this successful program to more than $55 million statewide.

• $200 million targeted to improve low performing schools through AB 961 (Chapter 749, 2001), the High Priority Schools Grant Program for Low Performing Schools.

• Author of the High School Pupil Success Act, AB 2531 (Chapter 1028, 2002), encouraging public/private partnerships that reform high schools and improve student achievement, including the formation of smaller “schools within schools”.

• Ensuring that our foster care system is directed toward positive outcomes for children, keeping siblings of foster care children together whenever possible, establishing standards in the state and federally funded Independent Living Program for emancipating foster youth, and ensuring a stable education, and creating permanent relationships for foster children AB 636 and AB 705 (2001), AB 1979 (2002), AB 408 and AB 490 (2003).

• Extending Title IX’s protection of gender equity for school athletic programs to cover non-school community sports such as softball leagues, AB 2404 (Chapter 852, Statutes of 2004).

Senator Steinberg has a strong interest in education as evidence in his aforementioned accomplishments. In his role as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on High School Graduation, Steinberg brings new energy to the efforts to reduce dropouts through his focus on early intervention. He most recently authored SB 344, supplemental instruction funds for drop-out prevention for students in grades 6-9 and SB 219 which adds drop-out rates for students in grades 8-9 as a measure of the Academic Performance Index. He also understands the important role that school counselors play in dropout prevention, as well as college and career readiness, as evidenced by his interest in engaging school counselors in the effort to keep students from dropping out of school by fostering their interest in college and/or a future career (SB 405).  Steinberg and his wife Julie have two children - a daughter, Jordana, and a son, Ari.