Mark S. Kiselica, Ph.D., HSPP, NCC, LPC

Dr. Mark S. Kiselica is a professor and the former chairperson of the Department of Counselor Education at The College of New Jersey.  He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, his master’s degree in psychology from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and his doctorate in counseling psychology from The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania.

A licensed psychologist, a health service provider of psychology, a licensed professional counselor, and a national certified counselor, Dr. Kiselica has worked in numerous mental health and educational settings.  He completed a school counseling practicum and internship at Tyrone Area High School of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and his predoctoral internship in clinical child and adolescent psychology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in Newark, New Jersey.  He was employed as a mental health worker on the Adolescent Unit of Fair Oaks Hospital of Summit, New Jersey, a psychological associate on the Admissions Unit of Danville State Hospital of Danville, Pennsylvania, a mental health clinician on the Adolescent Brief Treatment Unit of the Community Mental Health Center of UMDNJ-Piscataway, and a principal clinical psychologist at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown, New Jersey.  He also has worked in several private practice groups, and he currently provides consulting services to mental health facilities and school districts throughout the United States.  He was an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department of Rider University and an assistant professor of counseling psychology and coordinator of the Master’s Programs in School and Community Counseling at Ball State University.

Dr. Kiselica is the author of over 100 publications and 80 conference presentations, most of which are focused on advocacy work for teenage fathers and troubled boys and on the process of confronting racism and anti-Semitism.  In his role as a member of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Council on Adolescent Pregnancy during the early 1990s and the Bucks County Teen Pregnancy Task Force in the late 1990s, Dr. Kiselica organized numerous consciousness-raising events regarding the needs of teenage fathers, who have been greatly neglected by society, as well as several man-to-man workshops featuring adult men talking with teenage boys about sexual issues.  Through his work as the founder and coordinator of the American School Counselor Association Professional Interest Network on Teenage Parents from 1992-1998, Dr. Kiselica served as a resource on counseling teenage parents, especially teenage fathers, for school counselors throughout the United States.  In 1996, Dr. Kiselica served as a consulting scholar to the Federal Fatherhood Initiative of the Clinton Administration advising officials from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services about how to better serve fathers in federally sponsored social service programs.  In 1999, Dr. Kiselica served as the president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity: Division 51 of the American Psychological Association.  From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Kiselica was a member of the Steering Committee of the Newtown Township No Place for Hate Campaign, whose mission has been to sponsor community-based diversity appreciation events and forums on stopping hate crimes and violence.  The Anti-Defamation League identified this campaign as a model program in Pennsylvania.  From 2005 through 2006, Dr. Kiselica was an advisor to the Country Boys Initiative, which was a national, community-based, consciousness-raising campaign sponsored by ITV, an affiliate of National Public Television, to understand and help at-risk boys living in rural areas.  Dr. Kiselica also provides pro-bono counseling services, has served as a volunteer religious education teacher, and has coached CYO soccer and AAU basketball.

Dr. Kiselica served on the editorial boards of Journal of Counseling & Development, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Mental Health Counseling, and Psychology of Men and Masculinity, and he was the book review editor for The School Counselor and Professional School Counseling.  Currently, Dr. Kiselica is editor of the Routledge Book Series on Counseling and Psychotherapy with Boys and Men, and he is developing a special video for the American Psychological Association (APA) demonstrating the application of a positive psychology framework in psychotherapy with men.  He is also a member of the APA Working Group to Develop Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men, which will eventually be published in the American Psychologist.

In recognition of his national impact on the professions of psychology and counseling, Dr. Kiselica has been elected to Fellow status in the American Psychological Association (Divisions 17 and 51) and named Counselor Educator of the Year by the American Mental Health Counselor Association and an Alumnus of Distinction at Saint Vincent College.  In 1999 he was the recipient of the Publication in Counselor Education and Supervision Award for his book, Confronting Prejudice and Racism during Multicultural Training.  In 2000 he was named the Researcher of the Year by two different organizations – the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity and the American Mental Health Counselor Association – in recognition of his co-edited volume, Handbook of Counseling Boys and Adolescent Males.  Dr. Kiselica received the Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person from the American Counseling Association (ACA) in 2005.  This national award honors a member of the ACA “who gives to others without fanfare or expectation of reward other than the personal satisfaction of seeing other people made happier.”  In August 2005 at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity named Dr. Kiselica the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Advocate for Boys Award.  In May 2006, the New Jersey Counseling Association honored Dr. Kiselica with the Charles Tabler Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the counseling profession at the local, state, or national level.  Over the course of his career, he has given keynote conference addresses and been an invited speaker in the distinguished lecture series or a featured visiting faculty member of numerous institutions, including McGill University, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Teachers College of Columbia University, Ball State University, William Paterson University, Rollins College, Rutgers University, and Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Kiselica’s work has been cited in nearly every major textbook in counseling and counseling psychology and by hundreds of service organizations throughout the world.  He has appeared as a guest expert on NBC National News, MSNBC, numerous affiliate television stations of ABC, CBS, and NBC, National Public Radio, and several radio stations broadcasting to large metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada.  He has been quoted in many major newspapers across the country (e.g., The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning Star, The Wichita Eagle, The Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon, The Newark Star Ledger, The Times of Trenton, The Bucks County Courier-Times), several magazines with a national circulation (e.g., U.S. News & World Report, Parenting, Reason, Jump), and a variety of Internet-based news services (e.g., MSNBC.com, Yahoo!News.com, ExciteNews.com, Salon.com) regarding the subjects of helping teen fathers, understanding boys, and confronting racism.  He also has been featured in articles appearing in Counseling Today and The APA Monitor, the official newsletters of the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association, respectively.