Education

Ph.D., Counselor Education,
The College of William and Mary

M.S.Ed., Counseling
Old Dominion University

B.S., Family and Child Development, Human Services
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Research Interests/Areas of Expertise

Student Professional Identity Development, Teaching and Mentoring, and Working with Individuals and Families with Disabilities.

Biography

Christine Sacco-Bene, Ph.D., joined the Counseling and Rehabilitation Program at the University of South Carolina, School of Medicine Columbia in June 2019. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Florida, a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia, a Qualified Supervisor for Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counselors in Florida, a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC). Her professional interests include student professional identity development, teaching and mentoring, and counseling individuals and families with disabilities. Dr. Sacco-Bene’s leadership roles include having served the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) as the Public Relations and Awareness Director and as a Board Member for Lift Disability Network. She has also served on several task force groups focusing on issues of DEI and disability.

Selected Publications

Sacco-Bene, C., Walsh, M., Dawson, R. D., Petrino, J., & Boening, E. (2022). Virtual enhanced education in counselor education: Is this for real?. Counselor Education and Supervision, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ceas.12245

Sacco-Bene, C. (2022) Appreciative inquiry: A component of course evaluation and improvement. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/johc.12180

Brown, H., & Sacco-Bene, C. (2018). Pathways to success: HBCU agents supporting African American men matriculate. Journal of African American Males in Education, 9(2), 23-44.

Carson, D., Arter, C., Jablonski, T., Sacco-Bene, C., & Hukill, J. (2009). Disability dynamics in the family: A wraparound pastoral care approach for the church. Sacred Spaces: The E-Journal of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, 1(1), http://www.aapc.org/node/193.

Book Chapters

Sacco-Bene, C. (2021). Leadership profile chapter. In C. Storlie & B. Herlihy (Eds.), Leadership & advocacy in counseling: Strengthening the future of our profession. American Counseling Association.

Veshinski, S., Sacco-Bene, C., & Fernandez, M. S. (2019). Child custody and divorce assessment. In L. Sperry (Ed.), Family assessment: Contemporary and cutting-edge strategies (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Grothaus, T., Runyan, H., Sacco-Bene, C. (2019). Solution-focused counseling as a positive intervention. In G. McAuliffe (Ed.), Positive counseling: A guide to assessing and enhancing client strength and growth (pp. 173-183). Cognella.

Selected Presentations

Sacco-Bene, C. (2022, August 13). Inclusion means inclusion: Disability in leadership [Webinar]. The Counseling Roundtable – D.E.I. in Leadership: Conversations with Leaders in Counseling Field.

Sacco-Bene, C., Blazejewski, N., & Stackpole, K. (2021, October). Beginning at the end and end at the beginning: Building and extending effective learning communities by mentoring masters students and graduates. Concurrent presentation presented at the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s 2021 conference, Atlanta, GA.

Tapia-Fuselier, J., Sacco-Bene, C., & Balva, D. (2021, October). The ableist mindset: Exploring barriers and best practices to integrating disability competencies into counselor education and supervision. Poster session presented at the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s 2021 conference, Atlanta, GA.

Edwards, Y., Walker, Q., McCarthy, H., Bradham-Cousar, M., Balva, D., & Sacco-Bene, C. (2021, May 7). Advancing the field of rehabilitation counseling: A discussion with ARCA past-presidents. [Webinar]. Florida Counselors Association of Multi-Cultural Counseling and Development and American Rehabilitation Counseling Association.

Russell, V. E. D., Bradham-Cousar, M., Balva, D., & Sacco-Bene, C. (2020, December 4). Equality? Disability and racial health disparities [Webinar]. Florida Counselors Association and American Rehabilitation Counseling Association.

Sacco-Bene, C. (2018, October 12). Sharing experiences: An appreciative inquiry of a multicultural counseling course in The Bahamas. Poster session presented at the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision 2018 conference, Myrtle Beach, SC.