Jean Sunde Peterson, Ph.D.
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Jean Sunde Peterson, Ph.D, is a professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University, where she directs the School Counseling program. In her first career, she was a high school English and foreign language classroom teacher and received a state Teacher of the Year Award. Later, she created a multi-option gifted education program in a large high school and directed a summer foreign language day camp for children.
Working with small groups of gifted teens for several years inspired Dr. Peterson to pursue a doctorate in Counselor Education at the University of Iowa. On fellowship there, she did clinical work and consulting for the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and applied her group model to gifted students at a local middle school. Her total of more than 1,300 group sessions led to the research agenda that has guided her second career as a counselor educator.
Reflecting her interests in child and adolescent development and in clinical and educational work with gifted youth, Dr. Peterson has written or co-authored more than 80 books, journal articles, and textbook chapters, contributing to both school counseling and gifted education literature and often bridging the two fields. Among her books are The Essential Guide for Talking with Gifted Teens; Models of Counseling Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults; and Portrait and Model of a School Counselor.
Dr. Peterson has won numerous awards in teaching, scholarship, and service at Purdue University, as well as several national research awards, and she often presents keynote and other conference sessions related to her areas of expertise. She is a licensed mental health counselor and a national certified counselor, with plans to return to clinical work with gifted children and adolescents and their families in her retirement.
