Gov. Perry Names Four to Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today announced the appointment of four members to the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors. The board oversees the licensing and regulation of professional counselors in Texas.

Diane Johnson Boddy of Henrietta is a licensed professional counselor with a private practice. She also is a certified domestic violence counselor and an education diagnostician. She is a member of the Texas Council on Family Violence, the American Association of Forensic Counselors and the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. Boddy earned a bachelor’s degree from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls and a master’s degree from Texas Women’s University. Her term will expire Feb. 1, 2009.

James Castro of San Antonio is a counselor and manager of children’s clinical services at the Center for Health Care Services. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist. Castro also is a volunteer with the Coordination Resource Community Group and the Bexar County Detention Center. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. His term will expire Feb. 1, 2009.

Alma Gloria Leal of Rancho Viejo is being reappointed to the board. She is a professor in the counseling and guidance program at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Leal is a member of the American and Texas Counseling associations, the Texas School Counselor Association, and the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pan American University, and her doctorate in from East Texas State University. Her term will expire Feb. 1, 2009.

J. Helen Perkins of DeSoto is an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University. She is a member of the Texas State Reading Association, the National Black Child Development Institute and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Perkins also is a volunteer with the DeSoto Public Schools Campus Improvement Committee and the FFA. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a doctorate in education from Oklahoma State University. Her term will expire Feb. 1, 2007.