Mark Pope

Mark Pope, Ed.D. (born April 23, 1952) is Thomas Jefferson Professor and Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis (1997–2018), where he was a colleague to the social theorist Robert Rocco Cottone.

Pope attended the University of Missouri – Columbia (A.B., political science and sociology, 1973; M.Ed., counseling and personnel services, 1974) and the University of San Francisco (Ed.D., counseling and educational psychology, 1989).

He has been president for the American Counseling Association, National Career Development Association, Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling, Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues (APA Division 44), and Professional Counseling Fund as well as editor of The Career Development Quarterly, the preeminent professional journal in career counseling and development.

In addition to the US, he has visited and written on the career counseling systems of China, Malaysia and Australia.

Pope is a founding member of the non-recognized Sovereign Amonsoquth Tribe.

Chief Walking Bear swore in Mark Raven Speaks Pope as a Southeastern District Cherokee Tribal Judge on April 7, 2002, in Eastwood, MO on the Amonsoquath Reservation.

Isom Douglas "Hawkwatcher" Pope, his brother was present at this reservation formation meeting as a shaman.

Dr. Pope and Isom Pope were founders of the St. Francis River Band of the Cherokee in the Fisk and Poplar Bluff area of Missouri where they were from.

Isom Pope was a member of the National Native American Law Enforcement Assoc.

He was president of the American Counseling Association (2003–2004), National Career Development Association (1998–1999), Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (1976–1978), and Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues (Division 44 of the American Psychological Association) (2011–2012), Sovereign Amonsoquth Tribe judge (2002-), and founder and first chair of the Professional Counseling Fund (2004–2006).

Dr. Pope is widely considered to be one of the founders of, and leading authors in, the field of cultural diversity issues in career counseling and career development, especially gay and lesbian career development.

His major publications have included writings in counseling with sexual minorities and international students, the history of and public policy issues in counseling, and professional identity.

He also served as editor of The Career Development Quarterly (2004–2008), the preeminent journal in career counseling and development.

Pope was raised in Fisk, Missouri.

He was valedictorian of his graduating class and elected state vice-president of the Beta Clubs of Missouri.

In 2004, Dr. Pope was selected for the OUT 100 as one of the major contributors to lesbian and gay culture in the US in that year He received this recognition for being elected as the first openly gay person to serve as president of a major mental health professional association exactly 30 years after the removal of "homosexuality" from the list of psychiatric disorders in the US (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association), repudiating once and for all the illness model used to limit the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals in the US and around the world.

Dr. Pope also served from (2006–2016) as chair of the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy at that university.

"In August 2006, Pope was cited for possession of a small amount of marijuana and rolling papers while he was serving as the Iberia chief of police. He resigned immediately."

Founding his high school student council and his other early achievements portended other firsts both inside and outside the counseling profession including founding the Missouri Student Lobby (now Associated Students of the University of Missouri), the third student lobby in the US; founding the first gay and lesbian peer counseling program in the US (part of Beckman House, the LGBT community center in Chicago); founding the Graduate Student Council at the University of San Francisco during his doctoral studies and serving as its first president; founding the first multicultural career counseling agency in the US (Career Decisions International, in San Francisco); founding the counseling services section of the American Indian AIDS Institute/Native American AIDS Project in San Francisco; being elected as the first openly gay president of the American Counseling Association; and founding the Professional Counseling Fund, the first federal political action committee for professional counselors.

Dr. Pope is author of numerous books, including Professional Counseling 101: Building a Strong Professional Identity, book chapters (45+), professional journal articles (50+), and over 150 international, national, regional, state, and local presentations.

His many presentations include keynote addresses in China, Australia, Canada, and the US as well as consultancies in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and throughout the US with companies including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Pacific Bell, the Internal Revenue Service.

He has been the recipient of a number of major awards in the mental health professions including the human rights awards from the American Counseling Association and the state professional counseling associations of both California and Missouri, and culminating with receiving the Eminent Career Award of the National Career Development Association in 2008, the highest award in career counseling and development in the US.

His other major contribution has been to the literature on the training of counselors and includes seven books on teaching career counseling classes (Experiential Activities for Teaching Career Counseling Classes and for Facilitating Career Groups (3 volumes) and the Career Counseling Casebook (2 editions)); on teaching multicultural counseling classes (Experiential Activities for Teaching Multicultural Counseling Competence, 2010), on teaching classes on counseling sexual minorities (Casebook for Counseling Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons and Their Families, 2012), and on teaching social justice and advocacy competence in counseling (Social Justice and Advocacy in Counseling: Experiential Activities for Teaching, 2020).

(See "Books" below.)

Dr. Pope is a fellow of several major professional societies including the American Counseling Association, American Psychological Association, National Career Development Association, Society of Counseling Psychology, Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race, and Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.

Pope was awarded the NOGLSTP LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year in 2012.

In 2015 he was named a Curators' Distinguished Professor, only the 2nd such professorship awarded to a College of Education faculty member at the University of Missouri – St. Louis since the founding of that campus in 1953.

In 2018, the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) named an award in Dr. Pope's honor, the ALGBTIC Mark Pope Social Justice and Advocacy Award, for his lifetime of contributions in service of social justice and advocacy for the LGBT community.

In 2018, the University of Missouri System presented him with The Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest award that any faculty member may receive.

Only one such award is given annually and faculty are nominated from all four campuses of that university system.

Later, upon his retirement in 2018, he was named a Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus.