ACES Research Center: Advancing Scholarship. Expanding Impact
The ACES Research Center represents an important investment in our members and in the future of counseling research. Designed to advance scholarship, expand impact, and strengthen the research infrastructure available to our members, the Center will support counselor educators, supervisors, students, and researchers across stages of their scholarly development. This mission is especially important as our profession navigates increasingly complex challenges across higher education, professional practice, public policy, and the communities we serve. At a time when strong evidence and data-informed decision-making are more important than ever, counseling must be positioned not only to contribute to important conversations, but to help shape them. Through accessible research support, researcher development, collaboration, and the generation and dissemination of meaningful evidence, the Center seeks to strengthen our collective capacity to inform practice, education, policy, advocacy, and the future of the profession.
We invite you to explore the new ACES Research Center website to learn more about the Center, meet our team, explore available services and resources, and begin booking consultation appointments and requesting project support!
Three Core Structures of Support
The Center launches with three interconnected structures designed to support members across their research and scholarly work:
- Consultation Support provides individualized, immediate and real-time guidance from experienced scholars in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods methodology, analysis and dissemination planning, scholarly writing and manuscript development, and grant writing development and tips.
- Project Support creates opportunities for more in-depth, extensive support on your projects, including survey design, evaluation, data analysis, scholarly dissemination planning, manuscript and dissertation editing, and other forms of research partnership.
- Training Support invests in researcher development through workshops, dissertation development retreat, resources, and learning opportunities designed to strengthen research knowledge, skills, confidence, and capacity across career stages.
Inaugural-Year Consultation Opportunities
To celebrate the Center's launch and promote accessibility and engagement, ACES is offering one free 30-minute consultation to members and special promotional rates for 60-minute consultation services during our initial launch period. We encourage members to explore the available consultation areas and consider how the Center might support your current or future scholarly work. To grow our reach and encourage more individuals to become members, we are also offering services to nonmembers, at a non-discounted rate.
Appointments are offered based on consultant availability. If you do not see an available appointment or a time that works for your schedule, please contact Center Operations at centeroperations@acesresearch.org. We will work with you to explore available options and determine how we may best support your needs.
Meet Our Research Center Team
The ACES Research Center would not be possible without the research and grant experts who have generously agreed to share their time, knowledge, and skills as part of this initiative. We extend our immense gratitude to our Research Consultants, Research Center Affiliates, and the Doctoral Fellows for their willingness to invest in ACES members and help bring the vision for the Center to life.
Over the next several weeks, we will be spotlighting our consultants and affiliates so that you can learn more about their scholarship, areas of expertise, and contributions to the Center. In the meantime, we are excited to introduce the scholars who are part of the ACES Research Center during its inaugural year:
Research Consultants
- Dr. Stephanie Crockett
- Dr. Dodie Limberg
- Dr. Devon Romero
- Dr. Nancy Thacker Darrow
- Dr. Peitao Zhu
Research Center Affiliates
- Dr. Gerta Bardhoshi
- Dr. Michael Brooks
- Dr. Kelly Wester
Research Center Doctoral Fellows
- Alexis Crump
- Madelyn Dorn
This Is Just the Beginning
The inaugural year of the ACES Research Center is an opportunity to provide new support while also learning alongside our members. We will be listening closely to your needs, evaluating our services and programming, and using what we learn to guide the Center's continued development. We hope you will engage with the Center, share your feedback, and help shape what this resource can become for ACES and the broader counseling profession.
We are excited to begin this work with you and look forward to supporting your scholarship, strengthening our collective research capacity, and creating new opportunities for counseling research to make an impact.
Welcome to the ACES Research Center. Together, let's advance scholarship and expand impact!