Phillip Waalkes, Ph.D.

Phillip Waalkes (he/him/his) is the department chair and an assistant professor in the Department of Education Sciences and Professional Programs (ESPP). He received his Master's in School Counseling from Western Carolina University. After working for about 5 years as a school counselor in a K-12 school, he obtained his Ph.D. in Counseling and Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

At UMSL, Dr. Waalkes teaches courses in the counseling program including Helping Relationship Skills, Theories of Counseling, Individual Inventories, Qualitative Methods in Educational Research I & II, and Career Information and Development.

Dr. Waalkes’ research interests include the development of teaching in counselor educators, research mentorship, qualitative research methods, and the development of school counselors over the careers. Dr. Waalkes has conducted research studies using a broad range of qualitative research methods including consensual qualitative research, duoethnography, hermeneutic phenomenology, interpretative phenomenological analysis, Q methodology, qualitative content analysis, photovoice, and narrative inquiry.

Selected Publications

Stickl Haugen, J., Waalkes, P. L., Burgess, M., & Swindle, P. (2023). “It's like losing a family member": School counselors' experience with student suicide. Journal of Counseling & Development, 101(4), 1-12.

Waalkes, P. L., DeCino, D. A., & Flynn, S. V. (2021). A content analysis of qualitative dissertations in counselor education. Counselor Education & Supervision, 60, 209-223.

Waalkes, P. L., DeCino, D. A., Stickl Haugen, J. E., & Dalbey, A. (2019). The relationship between job roles and gender on principal-school counselor relationship quality. Professional School Counseling, 22, 1-9.

Waalkes, P. L., Benshoff, J. M., Stickl, J. E., Swindle, P. J., & Umstead, L. K. (2018). Structure, impact, and deficiencies of beginning counselor educators’ doctoral teaching preparation. Counselor Education and Supervision, 57, 66-80.