opened his own small psychotherapy practice in New York City, where he specializes in examining the impact of different social-cultural contexts on the individual person, families, and career development. He also helps gifted clients (e.g., chess prodigies) pursue their talents while also managing healthy and balanced aspects of everyday life. Awards and honors Ponterotto has received several awards and honors that are university-based, national, and international. In 1994, he was a co-winner of the "Early Career Scientist/Practitioner Award," given by APA's Division 17. As a faculty member, he has received the Distinguished Contribution to Multicultural Education Award (1997-1998) and Scanlon Award (2003) from the Graduate School of Education. In 2007, he earned the Bene Merenti Award for 20 years of service at Fordham University. That same year he received the honor of "Distinguished Alumnus-Research and Scholarship" by the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition, he was presented the "Visionary Leadership Award" at the APA National Multicultural Conference and Summit in Seattle, Washington. He also received the 17th Annual Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship from Teachers College, Columbia University at the 24th Winter Roundtable on Cultural Psychology and Education. Research contributions Ponterotto contributes to research in psychology by essentially working "behind the scenes" of publishing academic literature and other resources, where he has served on editorial boards for various scholarly journals and book publishers. He is also a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. Ponterotto is an active researcher who has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, which commenced while in his graduate studies. His research interests mirror the subjects he teaches, as he explores topics such as acculturation, racism, immigration, multicultural counseling and education, and qualitative/quantitative research methods. For example, Dr. Ponterotto emphasizes throughout his works that qualitative inquiry approaches such as interviews with participants and their families are highly imperative for research, practice, training, empowering, and honoring different ethnicities, races, cultures and their respective beliefs, values and traditions. This view is evident within his most cited article named "Qualitative Research in Counseling Psychology: A Primer on Research Paradigms and Philosophy of Science." Published in 2005, this article presented an overview of research paradigms that have been used by psychologists in theory and practice and specifically urges that qualitative methods and other research alternatives are taken into account in order to effectively train future students. Ponterotto is