Despite University of Alabama counseling professor Lisa M. Hooper’s immense success, she claims it has not been an individual effort.

Hooper recently received the Dr. Linda Seligman Award from the American Mental Health Counselor Association.

Hooper has won many awards during her eight years at the Capstone. She received both the Emerging Leader Award from the American Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development, and the Outstanding Research Poster Presentation Award from the American Mental Health Counseling Association in 2010.

Hooper has also authored or co-authored more than 47 publications, including articles and books.

“No great scientist gets their research done by themselves,” Hooper said.

“It takes a village to do good work, and she was part of that village,” he said of Lauren Huffman, a senior majoring in psychology. “I’m just a little person. She’s the star.”

Huffman assists Hooper on a pilot study called, “The Assessment of Culturally Tailored Mental Health Treatment and Services,” which looks at how culture and other factors affect the delivery of both physical and mental health care.

“I’ve been extremely lucky to be able to assist with the study, from the planning stages to data collection, analysis and dissemination of results,” Huffman said. “Undergraduate researchers don’t often have the opportunity to be involved with a research project from A to Z.”

Huffman recently received the Randall Undergraduate Research Award for her work with Hooper on the study.

“I presented our research, and won my division, in the Undergraduate Research Conference last year,” Huffman said. “Dr. Hooper is a great mentor in the fact that she pushes her students to excel.”

Hooper said Huffman was very intimidated and nervous when they began working together, but she has become a research scientist.

“I’m really proud,” Hooper said. “Seeing her get all of these awards means more to me than me getting awards. Through her mentoring and leadership, we have other students coming up in the lab who are replicating her great work.”

Huffman said she never imagined that she would leave the University with such solid research experience.

“Her guidance has given me the skills I need to perform well in graduate school and in my future career as a researcher,” Huffman said.