Counseling and Student Affairs Staff

Aaron W. Hughey received his baccalaureate degree in Biology in 1980 from the University of Tennessee at Martin. While at UTM, he served as the editor of The Pacer, the campus newspaper. This position afforded him an insider’s perspective on the inner workings of collegiate student affairs. It also afforded him the opportunity to gain considerable expertise in supervising junior staff members.  In the fall of 1980, he enrolled in the master’s degree program in Educational Psychology (with a minor in Zoology) at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. While completing his master’s degree, he was employed by the Department of Student Housing Services as an Assistant Head Resident in Hess Hall. In this position, he supervised seven Resident Assistants and was responsible for approximately 400 students.   Upon receiving his master’s degree in 1981, he took a job as a Residence Hall Director at Western Kentucky University. While at WKU, he completed a specialist degree in Counselor Education (with an emphasis in Student Personnel Services). After completing his Ed.S., he enrolled in a doctoral program at Northern Illinois University in August of 1984. While at NIU, we served as a Residence Hall Director for Stevenson Towers South from 1984 to 1986. In this professional position, he was responsible for supervising a senior staff of four and a Resident Assistant staff of 20. He returned to WKU in September of 1986 to become the Assistant Director of University Housing. He finished my dissertation and was awarded an Ed.D. in Educational Administration (with an emphasis in Higher Education) from NIU in December of 1988.

He was promoted to Associate Director of University Housing when he finished his doctorate and began teaching graduate classes for the Department of Educational Leadership at WKU during Spring Semester 1989. In 1991, he became an Assistant Professor in the same Department. His primary responsibilities included coordination of the graduate program in Student Affairs. He immediately began updating the curriculum and focusing on graduate student recruitment. He was eventually promoted to Associate Professor in 1996, achieved tenure in 1997, and was promoted to Professor in 2001.

In addition to being a full-time faculty member in the Department, he also served as interim director of WKU’s Knicely Institute for Economic Development during 2002-2003 and was Training Coordinator for the Center for Training and Development from 2001-2003. The Department of Educational Leadership was restructured in 2003 and, after serving a year as an Interim, was selected as the first Department Head of the newly created Department of Counseling and Student Affairs. He served in this capacity until 2008, when he returned to the faculty. 

He has authored (or co-authored) over 70 refereed publications on such subjects as higher education administration, student affairs, counseling and testing, diversity and management. He consult extensively with regional companies, organizations, agencies and schools and provides training sessions, programs and workshops on a variety of topics such as quality assurance, statistics, teams, diversity, leadership/supervision, change management and motivation.

In addition to the supervision experience noted above, Aaron W. Hughey has supervised Practicum and Internship students consistently since becoming a faculty member. Many semesters he was the sole supervisor as students entered this phase of their program. As enrollment grew, he worked with appropriately qualified adjuncts from the practitioner side of Student Affairs to insure that students received structured, qualitative feedback in their experiential assignments. He continues to coordinate supervision for the graduate students in this program area with the assistance and support of Dr. Burke, the other faculty member currently assigned to this program area. He has also been instrumental in developing training workshops for on-site supervisors and conducts workshops as required to insure consistency and adherence to applicable standards.  His background and familiarity with those working in Student Affairs at WKU and elsewhere helps him to be an effective advocate for both students, departments, and the profession.