New School Counseling Advisor: Karen Rubican, M.Ed.

PDE’s Division of Instructional Quality is pleased to announce the appointment of a school counseling advisor, Karen Rubican.  Karen’s role is designed to provide leadership and expertise in the following areas: counseling, curriculum regulations, curriculum development, Standards Aligned System (SAS), instructional strategies, and assessment as related to school counseling.

A licensed professional counselor holding national board certification, Karen Rubican grew up in western Pennsylvania and now makes her home in Venetia, located in Washington County. Her undergraduate degree is in Psychology from California University of PA (Now PennWest California), and she holds a master’s degrees in Community Counseling Services, K-12 Education Administration, as well as K-12 School Counseling and Advanced Graduate Studies certification from Duquesne University.

Her career began in public child welfare, working for Allegheny County Department of Human Services, then coordinated the Court-Teams grant for ZERO TO THREE and Allegheny County Children’s Court and the College and Career Counseling grant for Woodland Hills School District, which culminated in recognition as the outstanding multi-level career development program by the Pennsylvania School Counselor Association.

Karen began working at Canon-McMillan High School in Washington County in 2009 and oversaw postsecondary, career, scholarships, National Merit, school counselor communications and more while directly supporting a caseload of approximate 400 students. Recognized as the 2018 Secondary School Counselor of the Year by PSCA, she was a national finalist for the AASA Women in School Leader award in 2018.

Karen adds: “Greetings! I am humbled and thrilled to be the School Counselor Advisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This is a new position for the commonwealth, and I am eager to get started in providing resources, supports, advocacy, and a spotlight to the important work that you do each day with your students.  My immediate goal is to ascertain needs and concerns from the field and work to meet them. Do join my SAS PDE School Counselor Community to access pertinent information relative to counseling.  Also, feel free to contact me at krubican@pa.gov.”