Jane Morgan Bost, Ph.D.
Incoming CCAPS Chair

When young Jane (“Miss Morgan”) was teaching English to high school sophomores in the late seventies, her students continually sought her out for advice or support. She discovered that she truly enjoyed this unofficial aspect of her job--and that she had a gift. This inspired her to pursue a Master’s in Student Personnel and Guidance and eventually a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. Jane obtained all three of her degrees from Oklahoma State University, where her father, also her greatest mentor, coordinated the Rehabilitation Counselor Training Program. As a practicum student, Jane learned that she loved working with the college population and that she thrived on the hope, promise and energy that the students exuded.

Jane solidified her calling to work with college students by completing her internship at Texas A & M University Student Counseling Services. Then, in 1984, Jane married David Bost, the love of her life, and moved to Austin. There, she was recruited to develop a Counseling Center at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX—from scratch. Undeterred by the modest accommodations afforded the soon-to-be Counseling Center, she eyed the filing cabinet designated for client records, and declared that her first order of business would be to put a lock on the filing cabinet. Through extensive consultation with other Texas Counseling Center Directors, meetings with all 80 of the Southwestern faculty, and the services of a paid consultant, she developed a thriving counseling center that would become her professional home for the next 8 years. While impressive, this accomplishment was merely a harbinger of things to come. It also summed up her personal motto of “actively making a positive difference—the opposite of waiting for life to happen.” Incidentally, it was during her tenure at Southwestern that Jane first became involved in CCAPS. She was invited by Dr. Janis Booth to participate in a panel presentation regarding issues facing counseling centers at small colleges. The program was such a success that she continued to present annually on this topic at ACPA, until she accepted a position at the University of Texas at Austin (which technically did not qualify as a small college).

After being hired as a Staff Psychologist at the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center in 1992, Jane was persuaded to take on the coordination of the Program Development/Outreach area. She reluctantly agreed to do it on an interim basis “until a permanent coordinator could be found”. Eighteen years and several promotions later (her current title is Associate Director), under her expert leadership, Program Development/Outreach at UT has blossomed into a well-known and highly respected program that significantly impacts the lives of many thousands of students every year. One of the highlights came when Jane applied for and received multiple grants worth over a million dollars to establish the “Voices Against Violence” Program, UT’s first-ever focused, collaborative, and comprehensive program to address interpersonal violence. More recently, Jane’s Program Development team has launched “Be That One,” a large scale Suicide Prevention Program.

Throughout all her endeavors, Jane feels very fortunate to have the unwavering support of her incredible husband, David, a landscape architect. She is also blessed with two wonderful children, Christopher, age 23, and Morgan, age 19. Christopher is an Environmental Investigator for the TX Commission on Environmental quality. Jane is passionate about the protection of the earth and obviously instilled this value in her son—or vice versa—I’m not sure. She often talks about how humbled she is by what she has learned from her children. “As a child with special needs, Morgan has taught me so much in terms of valuing diversity. When she was born, we were told she might never walk; yet, when she was 8 years old, Morgan hiked down to the bottom of Grand Canyon and back up.” By the way, if you know anything about Jane, then you know that she is an avid hiker, “When I’m hiking in the mountains, I feel so alive; I feel like a part of my soul lives in the Rockies, waiting for me to return”. She has hiked hundreds of miles of mountain trails, including Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states at 14,494 feet—twice! She plans another hiking trip to the Colorado Rockies this summer.

As is apparent, Jane’s motto of actively making a difference extends to all aspects of her life, both personal and professional. CCAPS is no exception! She has made substantial contributions to CCAPS (Co-Chairing the Newsletter Committee, Chairing the Awards Committee, and serving as Chair-Elect), and has many visions for new initiatives. Read the Letter from the Chair to learn more about Jane’s plans for working with us.

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