UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Five years after earning a doctorate from the Penn State College of Education, and later taking a job as program coordinator of Marriage, Couples and Family Counseling at Portland State University, Javier F. Casado Pérez is returning to Penn State as assistant professor of counselor education.
“For me, this is also a personal return,” Casado Pérez said. “My first visit to the Nittany Lion Shrine occurred early in my life, when my family regularly traveled to University Park for my sister’s youth volleyball league championships. Much later, I attended Penn State as a doctoral student, earning my Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision. Now, with family still in Pennsylvania, I feel fortunate for the opportunity to rejoin Penn State and ready to contribute to the college's tradition of impactful and transformative scholarship.”
Casado Pérez previously served as director of the Community Counseling Clinic at Portland State. They received their master’s degree in mental health counseling from Monmouth University, with a specialty in relationship and family counseling. They focus their scholarship on mental health justice, equity-minded instructional design, critically conscious trauma-informed care and the institutional experience of racially minoritized educators.
“Penn State is an institution with international impact. The College of Education, under the leadership of Dean (Kim) Lawless, has made explicit its plans for being a leader in anti-racist education and practitioner preparation,” Casado Pérez said. “This overt mission, the college's scholarly community and Penn State's reputation for instructional excellence were what most appealed to me as I prepared to move my research and teaching forward.”
Casado Pérez brings a critical and student-centered philosophy to their teaching, inviting students to direct their own learning, engage with questions of disparities in mental health and keep equity and justice at the forefront of their practice. They have earned multiple certificates in residential and online teaching, and they continuously work to improve their instructional practice by attending teaching conferences and workshops.