College of Education and Human Development
GMU Counseling Couple Honored for Global Impact
March 7, 2013
Two CEHD professors, Rita Chi-Ying Chung and Fred Bemak, are profiled today in a laudatory Washington Post article about their counseling work and impact.
Below is an excerpt from the Washington Post article:
Many married couples dream of traveling the world together. Perhaps few have left as much of an impact in their world travels as George Mason University’s Rita Chi-Ying Chung and Fred Bemak.
In their 17 years of marriage, they have traveled together and separately on counseling missions to more than 50 countries, aiding victims suffering from the Haiti earthquakes in 2010, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on the Gulf Coast in 2005, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on Thailand in 2004, and the 2007 San Diego wildfires, which burned an estimated 1,500 houses in Southern California.
“In our field [of counseling], there is probably only a small percentage of professors who are this hands-on,” said Chung, who, like her husband, teaches counseling and development in GMU’s College of Education and Human Development.
“I don’t want to teach the next generation of counselors to be sitting around in an office; it needs to be hands-on.”
Dr. Chung (pictured) and Dr. Bemak have participated in and led counseling missions in more than 55 countries.
In recognition of their dedication to human rights, social justice, and culturally sensitive mental health treatments, the American Counseling Association will award Professors Chung and Bemak its highest honors this month. Dr. Chung will receive the Gilbert and Katherine Wrenn Humanitarian and Caring Person Award, which was awarded to Dr. Bemak in 2011. Also this month, Dr. Bemak will receive the Kitty Cole Human Rights Award, previously bestowed on Dr. Chung in 2012.
This is the first time in the history of the awards that two faculty members from the same university have been honored in the same year. Chung and Bemak have been professors of counseling and development at George Mason University since 2000.
Additionally, Dr. Chung is the recipient this year of a 2013 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and Dominion Resources.
About CEHD
George Mason University's College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) includes two schools, the Graduate School of Education, which is the largest in Virginia, and the School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism. CEHD offers a comprehensive range of degrees, courses, licensures, and professional development programs on campus, online, and on site. The college is distinguished by faculty who encourage new ways of thinking and pioneering research supported by more than $75 million in funding over the past five years.
For additional information:
- "Mason Professors Bemak and Chung Make the Perfect Team" on Mason News
- College of Education and Human Development: cehd.gmu.edu
- Graduate School of Education: gse.gmu.edu
- Counseling and Development program: gse.gmu.edu/programs/counseling
Contact us at CEHD Communications, cehdnews@gmu.edu
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