Dr. Judith Bookhamer is the retired Executive Director of the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association. She was awarded PSCA Executive Director Emeritus status after serving in that position for sixteen years. During her tenure she worked tirelessly to advance the status and importance of the profession in helping students become all they are capable of becoming. She embraced the American School Counselors Association/ASCA Model for School Counseling Programs as the best practice framework for a quality school counseling program and ensured that professional development relative to the Model was available for school counselors in the Commonwealth. She also served as a consultant/senior trainer for the Education Trust’s National Center for Transforming School Counseling. Dr. Bookhamer advocated for the school counseling profession at PDE and with Pennsylvania legislators. She served on the committee that developed the Academic Standards for Career Education and Work and worked to ensure school counselor representation in the development of the school counselor evaluation and PA’s career ready skills.
Prior to her work with the PSCA, she worked for thirty-three years in the McKeesport Area School District as a teacher, school counselor at the middle and high school levels and before retirement as the Director of Career Education and Counseling Services. Part of her responsibility as Director was to serve as the Coordinator of the local School to Work Partnership.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Education from the Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in Education from Duquesne University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. In her retirement she continues to advocate for the school counseling profession and the EPLC Mission.