For exceptional leadership in the field of counseling psychology, especially career development and assessment, as a researcher, mentor, journal founder and editor, and as a leader in professional organizations.
Over the course of a nearly 50 year career as Professor of Psychology at The Ohio State University, Bruce Walsh compiled an amazing record of contributions. His scholarship began with ground-breaking research on the concepts and measures of John Holland’s theory of career development in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His interest in measurement was more fully developed in his textbook Tests and Assessment (co-authored with N. Betz). This text was widely used in both undergraduate and graduate courses and went through four successful editions.
Beginning in the 1970’s, Walsh continued his scholarship with a series of edited or co-edited books in the fields of counseling and vocational psychology, including the Handbook of Vocational Psychology, Handbook of Career Counseling Theory and Practice, Handbook of Career Counseling for Women, and Advances in Vocational Psychology. More recently Walsh became interested in the applications of positive psychology to counseling and career psychology and edited a volume entitled “Counseling Psychology and Optimal Human Functioning. Some of these edited books have gone through at least one significant update.
In addition to these several major handbooks in the field, Walsh served on the editorial boards of most of the major journals in counseling psychology, including the Journal of Counseling Psychology and Journal of Vocational Behavior. Most significantly, however, in 1993 he founded the Journal of Career Assessment which was originated to publish new research in the measurement and assessment of vocational behaviors. Walsh edited the journal for 25 years.
In addition to his research, editorship, and mentorship, Walsh was also active in leadership of counseling and career psychology organizations. He served as president of APA’s Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology, and was one of the founding members of the Society for Vocational Psychology, now a section of Division 17. Among many professional and research awards, Walsh received Div. 17’s highest award, the Leona Tyler Award for Lifetime Contribution to Counseling Psychology.
Finally, as versatile and productive as Bruce Walsh is, he is never too busy to talk with students or young psychologists about their studies or their ideas. And he always brings with him a smile and a sense of humor.
For your numerous contributions to counseling psychology, testing and assessment, knowledge development and dissemination, I, Rosie Phillips Davis, present this presidential citation to Bruce Walsh.