Letter From The President
Greetings and salutations to all the wonderful professionals who are a part of the New Mexico Counseling Association.
I am so proud to greet you as the current president of NMCA. For those who don’t know me, my name is Lora Smalley. I am an LMFT, and I have been with NMCA for several years as a board member, then president of one of the divisions that are such a crucial part of our organization. I am filling some big shoes coming in after Bryan Moffit. He saw us through a major portion of the pandemic and helped ensure we kept a stable board. This last year he worked with all our dedicated boards and leadership to bring back the in-person conference in April.
If you were not able to join us, we hope you will be able to join us at our upcoming events and next year’s conference. Please see the events some of our divisions have coming up, as well as be sure to join us next year when we will be working to return to the two-day conference with a focus on meeting the new requirements for licensure by the board for ethics and supervision. One of the upcoming events we have is being thrown by one of our divisions, NMCDA is holding a workshop on Career Counseling in the New Economy in October. Of course, all our trainings will meet the NBCC and state requirements to ensure the highest levels of professionalism and information. If you have an idea or a request for something, let us know. If you want to present, please look in the next few months for the invitation to apply to be a speaker at next year’s conference.
During this time, we also had to switch membership platforms and are continuing to work on getting this part up and running. If you see a system request, please log in to ensure we are up to date and can keep informing you of upcoming changes and events. Please email if an issue emerges, and we can work on addressing them and adapting the system to meet the needs of our professionals here in our state. This will also enable you to see all the amazing work our Government Affairs chair Jeannie Montoya, is doing advocating for our profession.
Some other recent big changes that occurred at the cross-over were that our long-time Executive Director, Nathan Hoge, has stepped down to pursue new ventures, and we wish him all the best. Nathan, you will be so missed. Kathleen Charest, who has been our dedicated treasurer, has graciously accepted the position and is in the process of training an executive assistant, Kelsi Serrano, to help ensure the day-to-day running of the organization is smooth and that all inquiries and needs can be responded to in a timely manner. Thank you, Kathleen and Kelsi, for taking on such a big endeavor and helping to work for the advancement of our profession. Arianna Trott also graciously was nominated and accepted the Pres-elect position.
If you are wanting to learn more or be a part of the exciting developments, please reach out and learn about many of the openings in the different divisions. There is a great need, and some positions only require a small-time commitment of a few hours a month and can introduce you to so many wonderful professionals and networking opportunities that are endless, not to mention looks great on a resume. Some of the big things that different divisions are working on are the portability and compacts with other states and with national organizations to help ensure we stay competitive, work for better reimbursement rates, access to Medicare reimbursement, have high-quality training, and ensure they meet all the guidelines for not just our state licensure but for national accreditation and endorsements, advancements in training and assuring good mentoring for those coming into the field and more plans to come from our strategic board meetings.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us and let us know your thoughts or needs going forward. Look for updates to training and other noteworthy information in the coming months. Thank you again for joining us in the advocation for our profession.
Lora Smalley, LMFT
President of NMCA
Past President of NMMHCA
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