Tenille Gaines, associate director for counseling in Michigan State University’s Counseling and Psychiatric Services department, has been selected to receive the Harriet Copher Haynes Diversity Leadership Mentoring Award from the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. The award is named after Harriett Copher Haynes, who worked at the University of Minnesota Counseling and Consulting Services for 40 years from 1971 to 2011. The award honors “talented mental health professionals of diverse identities who aspire to become counseling center directors.”
In recognition of the award, Dr. Gaines will co-present a diversity-themed program at the 2021 Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors conference in Seattle, Washington, in October.
Dr. Gaines joined Counseling and Psychiatric Services at Michigan State University in 2013 as a doctoral intern before accepting a full-time role in the department in 2016. In May 2019, Dr. Gaines was promoted to associate director for counseling. In this role, she oversees counseling teams and leaders that deliver individual and group counseling, intensive clinical services, and outreach services, as well as the training, assessment, and research teams.
A graduate of Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, Dr. Gaines earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Georgia Southern University and a doctorate in counseling psychology from Auburn University in Alabama.