Rachele Hartley

Rachele Hartley is a certified school counselor and Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor in the state of Maine. She received her Doctorate degree from Capella University in the Counselor Education and Supervision Program. Rachele started her career as a substance use counselor working with adults, then spent the past eight years as a high school counselor in rural Maine. Rachele has extensive professional experience working with adolescents, parents, adults, and counselors-in-training in both school and clinical settings.

Rachele is passionate about suicide prevention, including writing articles in Chi Sigma Iota newsletters and co-presenting at a local conference alongside NAMI on best practices for suicide prevention and school responses to a student death by suicide. Working in rural Maine for her career as a school counselor, Rachele was active in working with local organizations, such as MELMAC, in developing programming to increase first-generation college students’ access to higher education. She renamed and adopted the national movement of College Access Week to Aspire Higher to foster a more inclusive approach to post secondary planning that went beyond just college to include military, technical programs, and apprenticeships. This name and approach were later adopted by MaineCan and now is a Maine statewide event.

For the past three years, she has been a member of the Chi Sigma Iota, including being a member of the Chi Upsilon Chi Executive Committee and member of the Newsletter Committee. Rachele has enjoyed writing about burnout prevention, critical issues in school counseling, professional identity as a school counselor, and the development of multicultural competence. She has particular areas of interest in rural school counseling, high school counseling, career counseling, substance use, diversity, group process, and advocacy.