Dr. Barreto is a professor at Ashford University and a founding member of The International Society for Policy Research and Evaluation in School-Based Counseling. He is an emerging interdisciplinary scholar who has been involved in diverse areas, including Latin American Studies (democracy, public policy, philosophy, and social movements), American Politics, Counseling, and Leadership. He also has experience as a Human Resources practitioner and consultant. As a research practitioner, he has been acknowledged by Harvard University and the University of Zulia due to his in-depth and multicultural research-based understandings of human interactions in community, political, and organizational contexts. Some recent publications include: Symbolic representations of socialism: its ideological contradictions in the Latin American nationalism construction (2019); Applications of phenomenology in political science; A study of leadership and political consciousness in democracy (2018); Historical Influences on the Development of Policy Affecting School-Based Guidance and Counseling in Latin America (2017).
Dr. George Vera is an Associate Professor at Barry University. He has been a mental health counseling professor, clinical and educational counseling practitioner, pedagogy researcher, and counseling supervisor for over 35 years. He currently teaches at Barry University in Florida. He has published extensively in refereed professional journals and has presented research papers and invited speeches at national and international counseling conferences. Dr. Vera is one of the founders and an active member of The International Society for Policy Research and Evaluation in School-Based Counseling (ISPRESC) and the Latin-American Counseling Network. He founded two unprecedented research groups at the University of Zulia: Theory and Practice of Counseling and Theory and Practices of Qualitative Research. Due to his professional and scientific merits, Dr. Vera has been appointed to lead over thirty master level thesis and doctoral dissertations and has been asked to act as president of several counseling conferences or has chaired their scientific committees. Dr. Vera’s research projects have examined various themes, such as, ethical and intellectual development of counselors; guidance and counseling professionals field training by a preservice curriculum; Venezuela counseling professionals law proposal; socio-anthropology of counseling; supervision education for community leaders; youth leadership emancipation; pedagogical innovations within the participatory democracy processes; school counselors supervision; community reflective centers for underserved populations.