Event Details
When:
-
Location:
Online: Zoom
In-Person at WWU
Keynote 4-5pm:
Academic West (AW)
Room 210
Price:
Free
Brought to you by:
Psychology Department, WWU Alumni Association
Description
PsychFest gives psychology or behavioral neuroscience students an opportunity to present their scholarly efforts in a supportive, low-pressure environment and can help students develop public speaking skills necessary to excel in a graduate program or a post-baccalaureate career as well as for practice for a thesis defense.
There will be two poster sessions as well as talks through the day culminating with a keynote address. The full schedule of the days activities is available online. Join us in-person for the day or join us online for the keynote presentation.
Keynote Presentation by Jordan Shannon, PhD
Counseling and Theories Surrounding Black Men’s Mental Health
Dr. Shannon’s keynote address will focus on the context of Black men’s mental health, as well as the findings from a study examining Black men's continuation in counseling experiences as clients. Black men face particular challenges, such as having the lowest life expectancy of any racial/ethnic group in the US (Wippold et al., 2025). They also are four times more likely to die by suicide than African American women and 20% more likely to develop a serious mental health disorder than White men (CDC, 2022). Present crises demonstrate a need to explore how mental health services can support Black men. Prior research on Black men and counseling has concluded that members of this population underutilize counseling services (e.g., individual, couples, family, etc.). Additionally, there exists little evidence on what helps Black men to stay in counseling when they engage in such services. Dr. Shannon will discuss his research on this topic and implications for improving services to support Black men.
Featuring:
Dr. Jordan Shannon is an Assistant Professor of School Counseling at Seattle University. His research interests center on racial identity development and experiences of racism in counseling, help-seeking behaviors and counseling utilization among diverse populations, mental health stigma and deterrents of counseling, and multicultural training in counselor education. Dr. Shannon’s research has been published in peer reviewed outlets such as the Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD), Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, and Race, Ethnicity and Education. Alongside his scholarship he engages in multiple professional service roles. He currently sits on the editorial board for the Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy and JCD, and he served as chapter faculty advisor for his local chapter of Chi Sigma Iota – International Counseling Honors Society.
Questions and Accommodations
- Contact Ruth Hackler for this event. Feel free to email Ruth at hackler@wwu.edu if you have any questions or comments.
- Advance notice for disability accommodations and special needs is greatly appreciated. Please indicate your special needs on the registration form.
- There will be auto-captions available for the Zoom webinar.
Visitor Parking at WWU on Weekdays
- Mon-Fri, 7:00am-4:30pm: limited paid parking is available at the south C lots and north 6V and 7G lots.
- Purchase your permit at the lot pay stations or use the Parkmobile app.
- More parking details for campus visitors are available online.
Parking at WWU on Weekdays for Visitors with Disabilities
- Mon-Fri, 7:00am-4:30pm: both a WWU permit and state disability placard are needed.
- Purchase your permit at the pay stations in lot C or 6V or use the Parkmobile app (use Zone 1200). This allows parking in any disability space. If these are full, you can use a non-reserved space nearby.
- More parking details for campus visitors with disabilities are available online.
The views expressed by our speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Western Washington University.