Counselor Education faculty member featured on public radio show

Radford University faculty member Sharon Blackwell Jones is being featured in an interview on the With Good Reason public radio program focusing on summer reading recommendations.

The program features six faculty members from across Virginia, including Jones, an assistant professor in Radford’s Counselor Education department.

The show description says Jones “shares why she, a black woman with a comfortable salary, is spending her summer reading about whiteness and poverty.”

Jones joined Radford University in 2012. During her 18-year career in education, she has taught graduate courses in diversity, counseling skills, LGBT counseling and practicum for individual counseling and groups. In addition, she has served as a high school counselor in Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Jones currently is serving as a consultant to Radford City Schools on developing cultural competence.

Jones' areas of research and professional interest include cultural competence training, LGBT issues, as well as grief counseling. She has been an active advocate for LGBT students and has developed and led safe zone trainings for students and faculty in university communities and in local schools.

The interview with Jones is scheduled to be broadcast July 14-20 on more than 60 With Good Reason stations across the United States. Listeners in the New River Valley can hear the show at 6 p.m., Tuesday, July 17 on Public Radio WVRU 89.9.

Programs are available as podcasts at withgoodreasonradio.org.

With Good Reason is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium and is broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

With Good Reason has won five Gabriel Awards for Best Documentary or Public Affairs Programs, and is the recipient of top honors from the Public Radio News Directors, Radio and Television Digital News Association and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters.