Board Bios
Carol Buchanan Jones, PhD, NCC, LPC-S is the Director of Psychology and Counseling and Associate Professor at William Carey University, Tradition campus. She is past the Chair of the Mississippi State Board of Examiners of Licensed Professional Counselors and Past President of the American Association of State Counseling Boards. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the MS Coastal Primary/Mental Health Collaborative, Director of Project Relief - Mississippi Counseling Association’s Hurricane Katrina response, and clinical consultant to the Boys and Girls Club Gulf Coast. Christine was an Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2010 from East Carolina University.
Samuel T. Gladding, Ph.D., is chair of and a professor in the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is a fellow in the American Counseling Association and its former president (2004-2005). He has also served as president of the American Association of State Counseling Boards (AASCB), Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW), Chi Sigma Iota and is the past chair of the American Counseling Association Foundation and the former editor of the Journal for Specialists in Group Work.
Sam has authored numerous professional publications, including 36 books. In 1999, he was cited as being in the top 1% of contributors to the Journal of Counseling and Development. A National Certified Counselor (NCC), a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC), and a Licensed Professional Counselor (North Carolina), Sam is a member of the North Carolina Board of Licensed Professional Counselors. Sam received his degrees from Wake Forest University (B.A., M.A.), Yale (M.A.), and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Ph.D.). He is married to Claire Tillson Gladding and the father of three early 20s something young men. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming, writing poetry, listening to music, and reading humor and history.
President-Elect William F. Green, M.S., LRC, CRC, CSW, CPRP is an Assistant Professor in the CACREP and CORE accredited Master of Science Degree Program in Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, where he was the recipient of the UMDNJ “Excellence in Teaching” Award” in 2005. He is President/Chair of the NJ Professional Counselor Examiners Committee, the licensing board for Associate, Professional and Rehabilitation Counselors. Bill was elected Treasurer of the American Association of State Counseling Boards in 2010, and in 2011 was elected President-elect. He also serves on several advisory boards, and is a Past-President of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Rehabilitation Association. Bill received his Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling, with a Specialization in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, from Boston University in 1986, and he has been a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor since 1975. He became a New Jersey Licensed Rehabilitation Counselor in 1999. He is also a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner, and a New Jersey Certified Social Worker.
Nancy W. Thomas, MA, NCC, LPC
Nancy Thomas is a Licensed Professional Counselor and National Certified Counselor in private practice from Montgomery, Alabama. She received her master’s degree in counseling from the University of Alabama in 1994. Her professional experience has been as a counselor in inpatient and partial hospitalization settings, as a Director of Counseling in a liberal arts college, and as a counselor and Clinical Director since 2008, of the largest private multi-disciplinary counseling center in central Alabama.
She was appointed by the governor to the Alabama Board of Examiners in 2010. In July 2011, she was elected to the American Association of State Counseling Boards, Executive Committee.
She is married to George Thomas, an attorney. They have two adult children, Render, who coaches in Montgomery, Alabama and Virginia, an attorney, who lives with her husband in Birmingham, Alabama.
Nena West, M.H.R., is the Director of the Professional Counselor Licensing Division at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. She has over 20 years of Public Health experience with the State of Oklahoma. Nena administers the masters level licensure programs for professional counselors, marital and family therapists, behavioral practitioners, and genetic counselors. She is a fellow in the Oklahoma Public Health Leadership Institute (OPHLI) (2008-2009) and is a professional coach in OPHLI. Nena received a Master of Human Relations degree and a B.A. in Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Christine Joyner Greene has served public education in North Carolina in various capacities including: classroom teacher, counselor, director of an early college academy and adjunct professor at NC A&T State University. She is past Chairman of the North Carolina Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Past President of the American Association of State Counseling Boards. Greene received a Bachelor's degree from East Carolina University and Master's degree from UNC-Greensboro. She has served on numerous civic boards including boards for the Salvation Army, United Way, Family Service Foundation, the High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau, Guilford Alcohol and Drug Services, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival and High Point United Way Campaign. She serves as a trustee at Mount Olive College and for the Nido Qubein Scholarship Board. Greene was recognized as a Distinguished Practitioner from the Department of Counseling at UNC-Greensboro in 2008 and received the Distinguished Career Award from UNC-Greensboro in 2009. She was selected High Point's Business Advocate of the Year in 2005 as well as High Point Citizen of the Year in 2000. Additional she was an Alumnus of the Year from East Carolina University in 2010.
