Profile

Ellen Hawley McWhirter is the Ann Swindells Professor in Counseling Psychology and Director of the Spanish Language Psychological Services and Research Specialization. Her scholarly interests broadly include the educational and vocational development and well-being of young people and particularly those who face disproportionate systemic and structural barriers. Current projects are focused on Latinx adolescents and factors that influence their postsecondary plans and school engagement, including critical consciousness, experiences of discrimination, and documentation status. Her research and scholarship in vocational psychology have been recognized by national awards including the Fritz and Lynn Kuder Early Career Scientist-Practitioner award (2001), the Outstanding Major Contribution Award (2005; The Counseling Psychologist), the John Holland Award for Outstanding Achievement in Career or Personality Research (2008), and the Distinguished Achievement Award (2015). In 2021, she received the Jeanett Castellanos Mentorship Award from the National Latinx Psychological Association. She is a Fellow of the Society for Counseling Psychology and a Fulbright Scholar (Chile, 2004).