Emerging Leaders

The Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities (SAIGE) mission is to advocate for the voice, equity, and inclusion of LGBTGEQIAP+ persons within the counseling profession and beyond and to promote the professional development of counselors and related professionals to ensure that all LGBTGEQIAP+ individuals receive ethical, culturally inclusive, liberating services that attend to all aspects of their intersectional identities. To help foster this mission, SAIGE is excited to offer an Emerging Leaders Program and seek candidates for the 2025-2026 year.  Our emerging leaders are provided mentorship, leadership through the SAIGE Board, and professional opportunities at the annual ACA conference and SAIGE conference, among others. After their grant year, previous emerging leaders have continued to serve in our organization, at various institutions, and within their communities.

A SAIGE Emerging Leader recipient must be a SAIGE member at the time of application and fall into either the Master’s, doctoral, or new professional category.

• Master’s Level: A student in a master’s-level program during the year of service
• Doctoral Level: A student in a doctoral-level program during the year of service
• New Professional: A post-graduate program individual. This individual should have less than one year of work in the field during their year of service.

Emerging Leaders will be selected to a) serve for the 2025-2026 FY term (July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026); b) choose an area of interest within the division and receive mentoring related to that area; c) will provide service to a SAIGE committee, project, or task; d) will learn the responsibilities associated with serving in elected leadership positions within our association; and e) will receive a stipend to subsidize conference registration costs for the 2026 ACA Conference or 2025 SAIGE Conference.

Emerging Leaders will be recognized at the SAIGE meeting at the American Counseling Association Conference.

In one document, interested applicants should submit the following materials in one PDF document:

1. The Emerging Leaders application (see attached)
2. Application Essay (see attached in application)
3. Curriculum vitae
4. Two letters of support describing your leadership skills and experiences along with your value and interests with LGBTGEQIAP+ issues in counseling

The PDF should be submitted to the emerging leaders co-chairs, Sheldon Aaron and Kate Johnson ([email protected]), no later than 11:59 pm PST on April 18, 2025.  The selection committee will notify applicants of the status of their application by May 9, 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact the SAIGE Emerging Leader Committee Co-Chairs: Sheldon Aaron and Kate Johnson at [email protected].

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please click here to fill out our google form.