Dr. Trish Hatch Awarded Professor Emeritus Status

Trish at her party celebrating retirement from SDSU, May 2019.

Our President and CEO, Trish Hatch, PhD, was recently awarded “professor emeritus” status from San Diego State University (SDSU). Dr. Hatch, who retired from SDSU last summer after 15 years, received a personal letter announcing the award.

“It is a pleasure to inform you that the Senate of San Diego State University voted to award you the title of Emeritus Professor in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology,” wrote Salvador Hector Ochoa, provost and senior vice president of SDSU. “This honor is granted to you in recognition of your years of service to the university and your significant contributions to its growth in excellence and stature.

“On behalf of the entire San Diego State community, I congratulate you on this honor and thank you for your service to our university and its students,” he continued. “I hope the privileges afforded by your emeritus status will allow you to continue to be an active participant in our university community.”

Those privileges include continued retention of a faculty identification card; access to health and dental coverage, recreation facilities, the campus library, and the foundation, including grant and proposal development services; office space as available; and discounts afforded to faculty for athletic or theater productions, as well as the campus bookstore.

“I’m very honored to receive this award,” Dr. Hatch said. “I’m very proud of my many years of service to San Diego State University.

“After coauthoring the ASCA National Model, I was privileged to be recruited to direct the school counseling program for over a decade and to redesign the program to align with state standards and the ASCA National Model,” she added.

To be considered for emeritus status, a department chair must first nominate a retiring professor to the Dean of the College (in this case, the College of Education). The Dean then submits an official letter of nomination to the Faculty Honors and Awards Committee, outlining all the reasons why the retiring member deserves the award.

Once it passes committee, the nomination then goes on to the University’s Senate Review Board, comprising eight full professors, one from each of SDSU’s seven colleges (and one from its Imperial Valley campus), where it is debated and determined during the Senate’s annual meetings.

According to SDSU’s website, “Conferral of emeritus status represents an honor bestowed by the university in recognition of significant and distinguished service to the university by tenured and tenure-track faculty from San Diego State University who may seek to continue their affiliation with and service to the institution.”

There is no doubt that Dr. Hatch’s work as head of the school counseling program; her work as executive director of the Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCaL) and the nonprofit’s six annual educator conferences - four “Supporting Students, Saving Lives,” focused on LGBTQIA students and two focused on supporting immigrant children; her best-selling authorship of The Use of Data in School Counseling in 2013; her work with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher program and bringing the White House Convening to San Diego State in 2014; and her relentless grant work on behalf of expanding roles and creating positions for new school counselors throughout California school districts; were all part of her nomination. (Note: This list is far from all inconclusive.)

“I’m quite proud of the leadership, advocacy and systems change being provided statewide by the amazing graduates of the SDSU school counseling program,” Dr. Hatch said. “It will remain my life’s work to advocate for and support school counselors and the profession of school counseling. Aztec forever!”

Please join us in wishing Dr. Hatch a hearty congratulations on this prestigious honor!