DEI Symposium Series - Inclusive Pathways to Success for Marginalized College Students

This episode continues our series of DEI conversations originally featured in the DEI Symposium of the NCDA 2024 Global Career Development Association Conference in San Diego, CA.

In this episode, Nikkie Bailey, a licensed clinical social worker and counseling psychology doctoral student, and Dr. Emily Bullock-Yowell, a psychology professor at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, delve into their research on career development factors impacting academic satisfaction among marginalized and majority undergraduate students. They discuss the challenges universities face in supporting marginalized students, the differences in career aspirations between groups, and the significance of future decent work versus occupational prestige in shaping academic satisfaction. The episode highlights the necessity of tailoring support strategies, the importance of culturally-sensitive methods, and the need for continued research on retaining and supporting all students in higher education. More information about their research can be found here: Additional information about their research can be found here, http://emilybullockyowellphd.weebly.com/.

More Information about Nikki Bailey and Dr. Emily Bullock-Yowell:

Nikkie A. Bailey is a second-year Counseling Psychology doctoral student from Florence, Mississippi. She received her M.S. in counseling psychology from USM. She received her BSW in Social Work from Mississippi College and her MSW in Social Work with a concentration in Clinical Social Work from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She is also a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). Currently, Nikkie is working on research with career decision-making difficulties (e.g., indecision and indecisiveness), negative career thoughts, and their possible relation to serious mental health outcomes such as feelings of hopelessness, lack of purpose, and suicidal ideation. This research aims to contribute to the development of effective interventions and support processes to assist individuals struggling with career decision-making difficulty by informing targeted career counseling and mental health services to prevent the escalation of distress. Nikkie’s goal is to disseminate research focused on possible association(s) between career and academic decision-making difficulties and severe mental illness as well as vocational matters involving minority and diverse populations.

Emily Bullock-Yowell is a Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS. She received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Florida State University in 2006.  Currently, she is a faculty member in USM’s School of Psychology, serves as the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program Training Director, and is a Licensed Psychologist in the State of Mississippi. At USM, Dr. Bullock-Yowell’s research program focuses on career development and vocational psychology. She teaches a Vocational Development course for Counseling Psychology doctoral and master’s students and supervises students seeing individual and group career clients. She leads a Vocational Psychology Research Team composed of doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students. More about her work can be found at, http://emilybullockyowellphd.weebly.com/, where you can also download some of her and her colleagues’ recent, free books on Holland’s RIASEC Theory and Cognitive Information Processing Theory. She can be contacted directly at Emily.Yowell@usm.edu or https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-bullock-yowell-67690a179/.