Randall Boen, Ph.D., CRC, LCPC (IL)
Associate Professor
Randall Boen obtained a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Austin Peay State University (APSU) in 2010. He earned a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling and Ph.D. in Rehabilitation in 2014 and 2018, respectively, from Southern Illinois University- Carbondale (SIU). Randall has worked in Disability Support Services, as an Internship Coordinator, Out-Patient Mental Health counselor, and AmeriCorps member. Currently, he is employed at Southern University and A&M College as an Assistant Professor within the Rehabilitation and Disability Studies Department under the College of Nursing and Allied Health. Within the department, he teaches in the Rehabilitation Services undergraduate program and the Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling graduate program.
Randall’s clinical experiences have included serving as an adult outpatient counselor for a community mental health agency in Anna IL. In this role, he had a range of clinical experiences working with adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses. His training has included grief therapy, vocational counseling, and social skill development. He has worked with individuals whose legal status was designated "not guilty by reason of insanity", and provided conditional release documentation.
Randall’s role as a researcher spans over 10 years. His undergraduate senior project at ASPU was titled ‘The Effects of Attitudes and Beliefs Students Hold towards Others with Disabilities’, in which he surveyed over 400 students inquiring into attitudes towards selected educational accommodations provided to students with disabilities (Boen, Upton, Knickmeyer & Anuar 2016).
At SIU Randall worked alongside his adviser and mentor, Dr. Thomas Upton, to advance a research agenda on stigma toward persons with disabilities. His dissertation entitled ‘The Evaluation of Attitudes towards Individuals with Mental Illness among Counselors in Training’, explored the stigma of mental illness among human service professionals-in-training (HSPs). Randall’s current research interests include the stigma of mental health, disability attitudes, and Assistive technology adoption and use. Randall is involved in many national counseling-related agencies including ARCA, VECAP and CRCC.
In the past, Randall has served as Co-PI in RSA-funded Rehabilitation Counseling Training with a specialization in Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment (VEWA). Currently, Randall is serving as Co-Investigator for a NIDILRR-funded Field Initiated Project, and a Department of Education Disability Innovation Fund grant program.
