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Sharon Mitchell, who has spent more than two decades on the front lines helping UB students cope with the stresses of college and traumas of life, will retire this summer as director of counseling services and senior director of student wellness.

Her last day at UB will be Aug. 1.

“I think 22 years is a good long run,” Mitchell says.

“It was always my plan to retire a little bit early because I want to have time to be a little more self-focused,” she says. “I feel like I have been very other-focused in my professional life, so I would like to focus on my own interests.”

Mitchell was named director of counseling at UB in 2003, her tenure marked by significant growth and change in counseling services on campus.

As advocacy grew nationally around the need to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, so too did the demand for more counseling on U.S. campuses. Meanwhile, national tragedies, like the Virginia Tech shooting, forced colleges and universities to be more attentive to mental health issues.

“I feel like a lot has changed,” Mitchell says.

“When I first started there were only eight counselors on staff — including me,” she says. “There are now 30 counselors on staff and a couple of psychiatric nurse practitioners, so there has been a lot of growth. Not only because more students were wanting services, but the university and SUNY have invested in mental health, which has allowed us to grow to meet the demand.”

Thanks to those investments, Mitchell made services more accessible by embedding a mental health counselor within each academic unit, as well as athletics. She expanded virtual and teletherapy services, so counseling is more convenient for students. And she introduced trauma and grief training to staff and faculty to grow the emotional support of the campus.

Mitchell also recognized the need for staff to reflect the diversity of the university’s large international enrollment, and brought aboard counselors who were fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Arabic and other languages. While other colleges and universities often report a reluctance of international students to utilize campus counseling services, “we do not have that problem,” Mitchell says.

“We want to be as accessible and approachable as possible, so everybody feels like people care about them and are interested in helping them succeed here,” Mitchell says. “Our value on diversity and inclusion is something that I’m really proud of.”

Today, some 2,000 UB students each year benefit from therapy through Counseling Services, in addition to the mental health education and outreach programs the office offers across the university.

Brian Hamluk, vice president for student life, says he is “incredibly grateful for the lasting impact Sharon has made on our 麻豆传媒o community and, most importantly, on the lives of our students.”

“I am frequently the beneficiary of expressions of gratitude for the wellness services that our students benefit from,” Hamluk says, “and those efforts have been shaped by Sharon in so many ways.”

Mitchell will retire to her hometown of Cleveland, which she left at age 17 for Minnesota to earn her bachelor’s degrees in psychology and education at Carleton College. She found her niche in higher education while at The Ohio State University, where she received her master’s and doctoral degrees in counseling psychology.

After an internship at Cal State Long Beach, Mitchell spent five years as a psychologist at Boston University, then eight years as assistant director of counseling at the University of Delaware before coming to UB.

“Sharon has provided outstanding leadership for Counseling Services during a time period that saw a great rise in student mental health needs,” says her longtime colleague, Elizabeth Lidano, director of student conduct.

“She is a steady and comforting presence when we are dealing with a campus or community tragedy,” Lidano says. “Her work ethic is remarkable and there have been many times through the years that we were communicating about difficult situations well into the evening, and have ended with, ‘Good night, talk more tomorrow.’”

Mitchell is also funny and a great storyteller, Lidano says.

Mitchell’s work in the field of mental health has not gone unnoticed. She long has been active nationally in the profession and previously served as president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. The association gave Mitchell an award last fall that “highlights not only Dr. Mitchell’s contribution to the field of campus mental health but is a significant recognition for her as a national leader.”

Looking back, Mitchell describes her time at UB as “productive.” She feels the campus community knew it could rely on Counseling Services in a crisis — and there were many over the years, whether due to the stresses of college life or troubles back home or the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moving forward, she’s hopeful UB will continue to take a public health approach to mental health by giving students the coping skills they need to manage their stress and personal relationships.

“We do a lot of educational and outreach programs each year because, ideally, we would like to see fewer students in therapy and more of them adopting healthy habits, so they don’t need professional intervention,” Mitchell says.

As for her next chapter, Mitchell is looking forward to spending more time with family, traveling, getting back to writing and staying as healthy as she can for as long as she can.

“I feel like I had a very, very good career and that I’m leaving this place better than when I found it,” Mitchell says. “That’s all you can hope for.”