Egg Talks: Becoming a Systemic School Counseling Advocate — Dr. Kelli Smith’s Journey in Douglas County

May 7, 2025

Written By Alec Church

When we invited Dr. Kelli Smith to deliver an Egg Talk at the National School Counseling Leadership Conference, she opened with a smile and an admission: “I am not a school counselor. I always joke with my team, I like to play one on TV.” And yet, few people have championed school counseling transformation more boldly or effectively than she has in the Douglas County School District in Colorado.

In this energizing 12-minute talk, Dr. Smith shares how an unconventional path, combined with curiosity, courage, and collaboration, helped spark a districtwide movement toward aligned, comprehensive school counseling services. What began as a steep learning curve became a story of systemic change—one that has brought clarity, structure, and new possibilities to 90 schools and 63,000 students.

From Crisis to Clarity

In 2019, the district hired 80 new counselors thanks to the successful passing of a tax increase. This huge step reduced the school counselor-to-student ratio to 250:1 in all of their secondary schools (the recommended ratio!) and put one counselor in every elementary school. This was a huge victory!

However, 2020 happened. The district then faced the sudden upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic. With no systems in place, no districtwide professional development for school counselors, and no common language around school counseling, Dr. Smith found herself, like many administrators, leaning heavily on school counselors without being able to offer the support they needed.

What followed was a deep commitment to change. Armed with a book of the ASCA National Model® and her background in data-driven learning communities, Dr. Smith began connecting the dots: school counseling is about intentional supports based on students' needs. That realization, combined with a bold vision and some well-timed funding, led her to Hatching Results.

Building the Framework: Essential Level Programming

From left: Mindy Willard, Angie Ness, Dr. Kelli Smith, Toni Dickerson, and Douglas County School District’s Renee Cawley

With guidance from the Hatching Results team, Douglas County rolled out a two-year professional development initiative focused on what they called “essential-level programming.” The goal? Align every school with the ASCA National Model® to implement a comprehensive school counseling program across the district.

Over the next two years, led by Assistant Director Toni Dickerson and her training team, Mindy Willard and Angie Ness, our team held professional learning sessions with district and site-based staff to begin the process. (With support from Gayle Fleming, Melissa Lafayette, Terri Tchorzynski, and Dr. Julie Hartline.)

One main element they focused on was “speaking principal,” as Dr. Smith described it, drawing parallels between Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and school counseling, and framing expectations in terms that school leaders understood. They needed school counselors to be seen not just as crisis responders, but as data-driven educators with standards, outcomes, and a critical role in student success.

Lessons Learned

Dr. Smith is candid about the bumps along the way: moving too fast, failing to bring principals fully into the process early enough, and initially celebrating only the outcomes, not the engagement. But the team adapted. They refined their feedback loops, embraced differentiated support, and began celebrating the journey, because in real transformation, the process is the progress.

Today, more than 80% of Douglas County schools are actively engaged in the essential level framework. Thanks to a districtwide school counseling curriculum scope and sequence now in place, every K-12 student will experience six lessons grounded in the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors. Four schools are officially RAMP recognized, and eight more are applying. (And applying for RAMP was not mandated by the district; it was borne out of authentic interest by the school’s counselors.)

We Did It!

In her closing moments, Dr. Smith beams with pride—not just in the systems built or the recognition earned, but in the personal affinity she feels for this work. As a parent of two high school girls in the district, she knows firsthand the difference this investment in school counseling is making.

“I am honored and privileged to be a supporter of school counseling,” she says. “It is the number one thing that we can do to build leadership, equity, and access in our schools.”

We couldn’t agree more.

See link to full story and video here: https://www.hatchingresults.com/blog/2025/5/egg-talks-from-district-leader-to-systemic-school-counseling-advocate-dr-kelli-smiths-journey-in-douglas-county