Grace Mims
Contact:
Phone Number: (308)
865-8358
Email Address: mimsga@unk.edu
Office
Number:
College of
Education Building: B 148
Education:
Dr. Mims’ educational background includes a bachelor’s degree from
Central Missouri University, a master’s degree from Western Illinois University
and a doctoral degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is a Licensed Independent Mental Health
Professional (LIMHP) and Independent Professional Counselor (LIPC) in
Nebraska. She also holds a Professional
Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist license (LMFT) in South Dakota and
is a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) and Approved Clinical Supervisor
(ACS). Dr. Mims came to UNK following 15
years as a Counselor Educator at the University of South Dakota where she
specialized in teaching and conducting family, group, and multicultural
counseling.
Background:
Dr. Mims’
has conducted many conference presentations and publications are in the area of
family therapy. The manuscripts range in content from theory
(i.e., General Systems Theory, Cybernetics, and Family Therapy, Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy)
to clinical practice (i.e., Bean Soup,
Journal of Clinical Activities, Assignments, and Handouts in Psychotherapy
Practice) to teaching (i.e., Rolling the Dice, The Family Journal and
Using Family Systems and Birth Order Dynamics as the Basis for a College Career
Decision-Making Course, Journal of
Counseling and Development). Helping students develop skill and integrate
creativity into their family counseling work inspires her approach to clinical
supervision.
Action
research through school and state partnerships has defined her grant, research,
and scholarly activity through program development and evaluation with group
work, diversity/multicultural training, and violence prevention in K-12
schools. Diversity training evaluation results have been published in the Journal of Specialist in Group Work
special edition on group work in the schools. In October 2000, Dr. Mims was
awarded the North Central Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors
(NCACES) Outstanding Diversity Award for the efforts. Violence prevention evaluation results were
published in the Handbook of Prevention
and Intervention in Peer Harassment, Victimization, and Bullying titled,
“Changing Violent Attitudes and Behaviors Through Prevention: A Close Look at a
School-Based Program”.
Dr. Mims’ commitment to the counseling profession at large can be
seen through leadership at the state, regional, and national levels. She most
recently served as a Governor appointed board member for the South Dakota Board
of Counselor Examiners and the American Association of State Counseling Boards
from 2003-2008 in the regulation of counseling.
She served as President for the North Central Association for Counselor
Education and Supervision (NCACES) representing 13 mid-west states on the
national Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) Executive
Council and coordinating the 2004 conference in St. Louis as well as the
education program for the 2003 conference in Cincinnati. She was also president
of the South Dakota Counseling Association (SDCA), Mental Health Counselors
(SDMCH), and Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SDACES).
She
married her classmate and co-worker from Western Illinois University, Matthew,
18-years ago and joined him at Ball State University where she was a Staff
Counselor in the Psychological Services Center.
Dr.’s Mims are happy to be able to work together as Counselor Educators
at UNK and appreciate the university’s philosophy of embracing dual career
couples. They have a son, Griffin, who
is 11 years old and a 6th grader at Horizon Middle School. Griffin’s interests take them to soccer and
swim team tournaments as well as symphony orchestra performances. Grace has a passion for collecting antiques
that was passed on to her by her parents and grandparents. You can see a small
sampling of antiques in her UNK office.