Houston, Texas, Aug. 3, 2023 – HCU President Robert Sloan and Dr. Stanley Napper, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, are proud to announce the selection of Dr. Michael Cook for The Sharon Burrows Professorship in Counseling, one of the University’s highest faculty honors.
“Dr. Michael Cook is a deserving recipient of the Sharon Burrows Professorship. The generosity of the Burrows family in the earliest days of HCU points to individuals like Dr. Cook, who, in his teaching and mentoring of students and counseling practices, exercises a great influence on current students, his colleagues, and no doubt generations to come. Roland Burrows, a University Trustee and his wife Sharon, President of The Guild, established the Sharon Burrows Endowed Professorship in 1998, and we continue to be blessed by their generosity,” said HCU President Robert Sloan.
The endowed professorship was created to assist in the education of public school counselors and honors an exemplary professor in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.
“The Sharon Burrows Professorship is reserved for a distinguished professor in the counseling program,” said Dr. Napper. “We are very grateful for Dr. Michael Cook’s service at HCU, and proud of his accomplishments in ministry, in teaching and in academic administration.”
Dr. Cook expressed his gratitude and appreciation to Drs. Sloan and Napper for his selection and for the founding donors, Roland and Sharon Burrows, and their legacy and generosity in establishing the endowed professorship.
“I am deeply grateful to be appointed to the Sharon Burrows Endowed Chair of Counseling. My gratitude extends to President Sloan and to the Provost’s Office for their votes of confidence. Additionally, I am deeply grateful to the donors who graced HCU with the endowment,” said Dr. Cook.
He described his appointment as “both an honor and an encouragement.”
“Given the profound mental health crisis in our society, we need well-trained mental health professionals and need deeply Christian mental health professionals within that milieu. This appointment encourages me to continue and to improve my mission to achieve those goals,” said Dr. Cook.
An Associate Professor of Counseling, Cook will serve as the Sharon Burrows Professor in Counseling and Director of the Gideon Institute of Christian Psychology and Counseling from August 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024.
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About Houston Christian University
For more than 60 years, Houston Christian University has equipped students to lead, collaborate, and embody a deep sense of spiritual purpose resulting from our central confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The University offers a wide range of majors, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs, as well as NCAA Division I athletics in the Southland Conference. Located in the heart of one of the nation’s largest metropolitan centers, HCU’s culture of excellence molds the next generation of educated disciples to be pillars in their communities, preparing them to think critically and biblically as they impact the world.