Rick Balkin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is a Professor and doctoral program coordinator in the Department of Leadership and Counselor Education at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Balkin is a Fellow of the American Counseling Association, a past editor for the Journal of Counseling and Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association, and past president for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Dr. Balkin began practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. Dr. Balkin has over 80 publications, which include text books on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship, published tests and technical manuals, peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. This led to numerous published articles and one published measure through Mindgarden (Crisis Stabilization Scale) related to assessing and counseling at-risk youth. He co-authored a measure on life balance for adults and adolescents. He has published in the area of religious diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for counseling clients through issues of forgiveness and conflict.