Rate My Professor Erin West

Dr. Erin West serves as the Chair of the Counseling Department and Associate Professor of Counseling at Baldwin Wallace University. She holds a Ph.D. in Counselor Education, an M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and a B.A., all from Kent State University. A native of Northeast Ohio, she is a licensed professional clinical counselor and certified professional school counselor in Ohio, specializing in counseling program development, assessment, and accreditation. Before joining Baldwin Wallace University, Dr. West was a counseling faculty member at the University of Texas at Tyler for seven years, where she taught in the clinical mental health and school counseling programs. She has worked as a licensed counselor since 2012 in community mental health agencies, university counseling centers, PreK-12 schools, and nonprofit counseling settings.

Dr. West identifies as a practitioner-educator, teaching courses including Counseling Children and Adolescents, Foundations and Ethics, and counseling skill-based courses. She supervises practicum and internship students using developmental and strengths-based approaches. Her clinical experience centers on counseling children, adolescents, and families addressing trauma, anxiety, grief, depression, and behavioral concerns, incorporating person-centered, solution-focused, narrative, and play-based methods. An active scholar, she has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in American Counseling Association journals, presented at local, regional, and national conferences, and served as a reviewer for the Counselor Education and Supervision Journal and the Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy. At the University of Texas at Tyler, she and a colleague received a $1.9 million U.S. Department of Education Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant to improve mental health services in rural East Texas PreK-12 schools. She provides trainings and consultations to K-12 schools and community mental health agencies on child and adolescent mental health and counselor ethics. As founding chair, Dr. West leads the Department of Counseling in the School of Health Sciences and the Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, bolstered by a $1 million grant from the Harding Family Charitable Trust for student scholarships.