Meet The Team

Dr. Cartwright advocates for evidenced-based prevention models and an increase in an adequately trained mental health workforce. Additionally, Dr. Cartwright is the past president of the Texas Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (TACES). As the TACES President, Dr. Cartwright imitated several advocacy efforts for the State of Texas and these efforts still occur annually. For example, Dr. Cartwright launched the idea of TACES sponsored Advocacy Grants. Subsequently, TACES disseminated the first set of annual advocacy grants, the inaugural TACES Advocacy Award for an outstanding professional was disseminated, and Angie played an active role in assisting the Texas Counseling Association with achieving the largest turnout to the TCA advocacy days at the Texas State Capitol.

At that particular advocacy day, over 150 counselors, supervisors, students, and counselor educators from across the Texas chartered buses and carpooled to lobby and speak to legislators about issues related to the counseling profession. Additionally, Dr. Cartwright received the Texas governor’s award for her volunteer clinical work with incarcerated sexual offenders within the TDCJ. Her passion for counseling and teaching was recognized by the African American Student Leadership Team at Texas A&M University- Commerce with the 2015 Professor of the Year Award.

Dr. Cartwright has been recognized at the national level for her leadership and work with underserved populations. She was named the Outstanding Addiction/Offender Professional by the International Association for Addiction and Offender Counseling in 2016 and most recently the American Counseling Association selected her as the 2017 Emerging Professional Leader. Dr. Cartwright’s  research agenda addresses the success of children from absent-father homes, offender and addictions counseling issues, and issues within counselor education. She has published in numerous peer-reviewed publications related to cultural diversity.

Dr. Carey is an Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Counseling and currently serves as the Program Director for the doctoral program in Health Services Research. Dr. Carey has made investigating issues affecting persons of color with disabilities a career-long focus. She has served as an editorial board member for the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and is the former President for the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns. Dr. Carey recently completed a 6-year term as a Commissioner for the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) Graduate Accreditation and Standards committee, where she served as Vice Chair for the last 2 years.

She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and previously held a Licensed Professional Counselor intern designation in the State of Michigan (2005-2009). She is currently the Lead Primary Investigator on a Minority Health Research Grant Program project sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which focuses on recruitment and enhanced retention supports for African-American and Latino(a) students seeking careers in rehabilitation counseling. In addition, Dr. Carey has reviewed and managed Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, Long-Term Training Grants which provided training stipends for students in rehabilitation counseling master’s degree programs.

Dr. Carey has contributed well over 25 refereed publications and book chapters to the literature and completed 39 national presentations over her 16-year career as a scholar. She is the recipient of 7 Research and service awards and is regarded in her discipline as one of the top multicultural researchers. Her research interests include: multicultural competency in rehabilitation counselor education and practice; multicultural clinical supervision practices; and severe mental illness and rehabilitation outcomes. Her most recent research projects have utilized multivariate data analyses and life stories/personal narratives of African American women with mental illnesses, examined through hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative methods.

As Co-PI, she will help the primary investigator with the coordination of the project and will oversee the development of the SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions training modules while infusing principles from the Health Research and Educational Trust Disparities Toolkit. She will also assist with project evaluation.

Through her experiences as a school counselor, community counselor, and as a counselor educator, Dr. Ceballos has engaged in development, management and dissemination of findings for research studies in the areas of culturally responsive school- counseling services for minority students, culturally informed parent and teacher training interventions and other issues relevant to multiculturalism and social justice. Her educational background includes specialized training in the use of play therapy and expressive arts as non-traditional counseling interventions to use across developmental stages and with linguistically diverse clients.

Her clinical, teaching, service, and research experience will be helpful in addressing the project training on serving MUCs. In addition, her experience working with Spanish speaking clients and educational background in play therapy and expressive arts will be helpful to develop the trainings on using translation and non-traditional counseling interventions with linguistically diverse clients. As a Co-PI, her past experience as a school counselor and current involvement in conducting research in school districts will help attend to the specific needs of school counseling interns participating in the proposed project.

Kimmalla Mitchell will serve as the Project Coordinator for the program. Ms. Mitchell graduated with her BS in Criminal Justice from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. At the end of her college career she enlisted in the United States Army as a Military Police Officer. Ms. Mitchell served in Iraq, Germany, The Netherlands, and concluded her seven year Military career at Fort Bliss, Texas where she was medically retired. She has always had a desire to serve her community and to treat people holistically.

Ms. Mitchell served as the Historically Underutilized Business Specialist for three years with The University of North Texas System. She is an advocate for small minority business owners and is passionate about supplier diversity. Ms. Mitchell assisted the University of North Texas Dallas campus in reaching number two of 180 for the Historically Underutilized Business Program in the State of Texas. Ms. Mitchell is currently receiving her MA in Professional Counseling from Liberty University and desires to work with the underserved and veteran population, as well as helping people with influence overcome their struggles.

Ms. Mitchell has extensive experience in finance management, procurement services, and administration. Ms. Mitchell serves in her community as a volunteer for the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce, Director of Administration for her local church, and the Director of Community Outreach for her local Elementary School.

Rekha, is a doctoral student in the Applied Gerontology Program at the University of North Texas. She received her Master's in Biology from India. After coming to the US, she started her career as a volunteer in a genetics lab, where she gained scientific techniques. Her journey in the lab molded her toward pursuing higher studies to address the critical aspect of aging issues and improve the quality of life of the elderly. Her research interests are to enhance the quality of life by addressing the elderly abuse in caring facilities. She is looking forward to doing more research to create harmony among caregivers, administrators, and residents of the facilities. As Graduate Research Assistan, Mrs. Pudur contributes to the development and delivery of trainings and workshops, assist with on-going data collection, entry and analysis.