Director of Pitt’s Counseling Center steps down

James Cox spent nearly two decades at Pitt’s Counseling Center, starting as an intern before… James Cox spent nearly two decades at Pitt’s Counseling Center, starting as an intern before working his way up to become director. Now he’s headed back to the classroom.

After 19 years with Pitt’s Counseling Center, the director has stepped down to take on a teaching role at the School of Social Work. Tevya Zukor, the previous director of Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Mary Washington, will take over Sept. 19.

Cox, who became director in 2003, never dreamed his internship would lead to the director’s position.

“I never thought I would be the director, it was never my goal in life,” Cox said. “I just liked helping students.”

It was that passion that has followed Cox throughout his 25-year career in counseling.

Kevin Bursley, a psychologist at the Counseling Center, worked with Cox for 15 years and said he was a great co-worker.

“I’ve got to say I’ve never seen anyone so dedicated to his job and to Pitt students as he is,” Bursley said.

Numerous counseling positions prepared Cox to become the director of the counseling center. He first served as a counselor, then became an associate director in 1998. Before coming to Pitt, he also worked at Dickinson College as the counselor and coordinator of minority affairs, and at Duquesne University as a mental health specialist.

As director of the counseling center, Cox helped set up the Stress Free Zone in the William Pitt Union, increased psychiatric services and helped the center deal with a year-by-year increase in demand for services.

“When I took over, the Counseling Center was in very good shape, and I tried to maintain that,” Cox said.

Sharon Young, the associate director at the center, has worked alongside Cox since last December and said that he has “really been a strong and supportive leader and mentor for all of us here at the counseling center.”

Young said that Cox has been really dedicated to the work that the Counseling Center does with students and has overseen a lot of its growth and development.

Cox said he is excited to return to the classroom this fall to teach full time at the School of Social Work. He will be teaching four classes — one undergraduate and three graduate classes.

“As a teacher, I am looking forward to teaching other students so each one of them can go out and I can still make an impact,” Cox said.

Bursley said that although he will miss Cox’s hard work and dedication around the Counseling Center, he expects him to be a great professor.

“I always felt like he cared a lot about everyone who worked for him as well [as the students] and worked to make our jobs better,” Bursley said.

Young agreed that Cox will excel in the classroom.

“He is really committed to helping University students, and this is just another way that he can show that dedication,” Young said. “He’s been doing social work for years and years, so I view this as just another way of helping University students. It’s a new chapter to his career.”

Counseling students is what Cox said was both his favorite part of the job and what he will miss most about his position at the center.He said that he continued to see students even after he became director of the Counseling Center.

“That’s what I went into the field for,” Cox said about helping students. “Now I’m training other people to help people.”

Although Cox said he will miss the one-on-one counseling aspect of his old job, he looks forward to the “challenge in front of me in terms of teaching and advising students.”

He said he made the decision to step down not only because of the new teaching opportunity, but also to give someone else a chance to shape the Counseling Center.

“I wanted to step down so that someone younger could take the position and move the Counseling Center forward,” Cox said.

Zukor said in a press release sent out by Pitt that he is “really excited” to be joining Pitt’s counseling team.

“Pitt has a national reputation for being an outstanding University and providing excellent counseling services for its students,” Zukor said in the press release. “I consider it quite an honor to be selected to lead the outstanding group of professionals who are already in place and provide the highest level of service for Pitt’s student body.”