Olivia Ngadjui

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Assistant Professor, Counselor Education

Location:

3521 Sangren Hall, Mail Stop 5226

Mailing address:

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5226 USA

Education:

Ph.D., Idaho State University
M.A., The George Washington University

Research Interests:

professional identity development and expanding culturally responsive practice for teaching, counseling, supervising, research/scholarship and leadership/advocacy in counselor education
culturally responsive strategies for informing the work of teachers and practitioners working with students of color in P-12 school environments
preventative wellness practices in counselor education for budding counselors

Bio:

Olivia T. Ngadjui, (she/her/hers) PhD, NCC, LPC (ID, WY) joined the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology as an Assistant Professor in August 2021. She is a nationally certified counselor (NCC) and a practicing licensed professional counselor for the states of Idaho and Wyoming (LPC (ID, WY)). She is also, a distinguished fellow with the Diversity Research Action Consortium at George Mason University led by Dr. Sam Steen. She received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Counselor Education from Idaho State University. Her dissertation entitled “Shaking Up The Room: The Process of Professional Identity Development of Black Doctoral Students in Counselor Education” received full national funding from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision as well as the Association for Adult Development and Aging. Dr. Ngadjui also has a Masters of Arts degree from The George Washington University in Clinical Mental Health Counseling where she received the 2021 Dean’s Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award.

She also has presented at multiple counseling, associated mental health and educational conferences nationally, regionally and locally. Relatedly, she received the Rocky Mountain Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s 2020 Emerging Leader honor as well as the 2020 Multiculturalism and Social Justice Advocacy Award. She also received the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development’s 2021 Kim Lee Hughes Womanista “Wings” Award. Dr. Ngadjui is a native of southeast Washington DC with a Cameroonian background. In her spare time, she enjoys serving in the Kalamazoo community, reading fiction for leisure, venturing to find murals, fashion, baking and fitness related activities.

Selected leadership/advocacy roles:

(2023-Present) Section Editor (Movies and TV Shows), Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International (CSI)'s Counselors' Bookshelf
(2024-Present) Editorial Board Member, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development
(2024-Present) Member at Large for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism, Association for Counselor Education and Supervision

Selected Publications:

Ngadjui, O.T., Sanchez-Rodriguez, M., Chan, C.D., Reyna, M., & Steen, S. (2025). Magnifying Black/African American representation to expand cultural sensitivity in counselor educator preparation programs. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. Retrieved from https://doi-org.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/10.1002/jmcd.12318
Adkison-Johnson, C., Ngadjui, O.T., & Peterson, G.J. (2024). The therapeutic relationship. In S.K. Butler & A. Shillingford (Eds.), Intersectional counseling skills: The journey to becoming a culturally inclusive counselor. Cognella Press.
Ngadjui, O.T. & Horn, E. (2024). Professional identity development of Black doctoral students in counselor education: A reflexive model. Teaching and Supervision in Counseling, 6(1). Retrieved from https://trace.tennessee.edu/tsc/vol6/iss1/3/
Ngadjui, O.T., Frank, C.D. & Chan, C.D. (2023). Utilizing sentipensante as pedagogical trauma informed practice for urban P-12 classrooms. In T.A. Flowers, (Ed.)., Leadership and policy in urban education: Key issues. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Ngadjui, O.T., Chan, C.D., Scott, B. & Nelson, A. (2023). An education without domination: Subversive practices on social structures and humanizing practices for students of color. In T.M. Mealy & H. Bennett (Eds.)., Equity in the classroom: Essays on curricular and pedagogical approaches to empowering all students. McFarland.
Ngadjui, O.T. (2022). Uprooting the prevalence of misogynoir in counselor education. In C. J. Porter & T. Sulé (Eds.)., Applying Black feminist epistemology and praxis: Narratives in and through the academy (pp. 65-70). Routledge.
Ngadjui, O. T. (2021). Integrating vicarious resilience into counselor education programs. Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision, 14(4), 23. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1496&context=jcps
Chan, C. D., Ngadjui, O. T., Jackson, T., & Steen, S. (2021). Unsettling complex inequities on school climate for males of color: School counseling applications from an intersectionality-based policy analysis. Professional School Counseling, 25(1/4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X211040029