About our authors
JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey
While a high school counselor and then director of guidance in a large suburban high school west of Chicago, I became interested in the phenomenon of career choice. I read about the early work of John Holland, who was Vice-President of Research at ACT (then the American College Testing Company). Simultaneous with absorbing Holland's theory, I was learning about mainframe computers and noting how they were being used by large school districts, primarily for student scheduling. When IBM released the first cathode ray tube in 1966, it became obvious that the added capability for interactive dialogue between a person and a computer could be harnessed to develop systems that could help young people and adults with career exploration and decision making.
Given that realization, members of my guidance staff and I wrote a proposal to the Illinois Board of Vocational Education asking for funding to develop a system that would serve students for career exploration and counselors for record keeping and course scheduling. The proposal was funded and provided sufficient budget for us to conceptualize, operationalize, evaluate and distribute the Computerized Vocational Information System (CVIS). That system was distributed free of charge to about 200 school districts. This caught the attention of the IBM Corporation, especially since the system operated on IBM equipment. The result was that IBM offered to contribute staff and other kinds of support for a more advanced product if I could acquire more funding. That funding came from the U.S. Department of Education and supported the development of a more comprehensive system, both in guidance content and technical sophistication. Involvement in this new era of career guidance put me in contact with Dr. Donald Super, who became a significant mentor in my professional life.
I left my position as director of guidance at the large Illinois high school and was accepted for pursuit of a doctoral degree at Northern Illinois University. Meanwhile, the distribution of the new system, called DISCOVER, caught the attention of ACT Inc., which offered me and my small staff the opportunity to merge into ACT for the purpose of further development and maintenance of the product. All of this established my reputation as a leader in the new field of computer-assisted career guidance. I completed my doctorate and accepted the offer by ACT.
Although the development of a series of computer-assisted career guidance systems dominated the next 16 years of my life, I also developed skill and experience as a college professor and college career counselor. Just prior to joining ACT I worked at Towson University as a career counselor. I also taught evening courses in career development theory and practice at Northern Illinois University, the Johns Hopkins University and Loyola University in Baltimore. I immersed myself in work for our professional organizations, especially the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the National Career Development Association (NCDA). I served on the Board of NCDA for many years and served as president in 1998 to 1999. I also wrote articles and book chapters, and I authored a college-level course in career exploration and choice called Take Hold of Your Future.
In 1998, when I reached the age of 65, it seemed appropriate to retire, and so I did retire from ACT in the fall of that year. However, I had not yet completed my life plan. Upon retiring, I worked with Dr. Barbara Suddarth and Dr. David Reile to update the curriculum for the training of Career Development Facilitators (CDF) in the United States. Then we modified that curriculum for the Japan Career Development Association, which has used the curriculum to train 20,000 Career Advisors. That work led to a contract for development of the Offender Workforce Development Specialist (OWDS) curriculum, which is offered to staff who work with offenders and ex-offenders.
With a sigh of relief, I attempted retirement again. However, in 2005 the CEO and owner of Kuder, Inc., offered me a position of leadership in the development of the Kuder systems, which are widely used in the United States and in several other countries. And, by the way, somewhere along this continuum of activities, Dr. Spencer Niles sought me out to assist him with this textbook, and here we are in the 6th edition! I'm 87 years old now, live near Baltimore, Maryland, and winter in Fort Myers, FL. I am going to attempt once more to retire!
Spencer Niles
I am a Professor of Counselor Education at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I also serve as the co-director of the THRIVE Research and Intervention Center. I am currently the Editor of Counselor Education and Supervision. Previously, I served as Dean of the School of Education at William & Mary; Distinguished Professor and Department Head of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education at Penn State and Professor at the University of Virginia. I am honored to have served as the only 2-time President in the more than 100-year history of the National Career Development Association and to be the recipient of the National Career Development Association's Eminent Career Award (like Dr. Bowlsbey, who received the award prior to me). I am also an NCDA and ACA Fellow and have served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, Finnish Institute for Educational Research; Editor, Journal of Counseling & Development; President of Chi Sigma Iota and Editor of The Career Development Quarterly.
I have received the following awards from the ACA: Thomas Hohenshil Publication Award; Thomas J. Sweeney Award for Visionary Leadership and Advocacy; President's Award; Extended Research Award; David Brooks Distinguished Mentor Award and I have been appointed a Fellow by the ACA. I am an Honorary Member of the Japanese Career Development Association; Honorary Member, Italian Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance; Lifetime Honorary Member, Ohio Career Development Association and the recipient of the Noted Scholar Award from the University of British Columbia. I have authored or co-authored approximately 145 publications and delivered over 150 presentations at international, national and regional conferences. My highest honor and privilege as a career development scholar is having the opportunity to co-author this book with Dr. JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, who is a true pioneer in the career development field and my dear friend.
