Faculty & Staff Honors, Press Releases

Holmes Presents at National Conference

Nash Community College’s Dean of Student Wellness and Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences Marbeth Holmes this week presented “Serving the WHOLE Student: A Trauma-Informed Approach” at #RealCollege: a national convening on food and housing insecurity to educate national college and university administrators, faculty, staff, funders, and clinicians. The event was held at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In her presentation, Holmes provided an overview of mental health issues and trauma often experienced by students whose basic needs are not met. Her goal was to empower helping professionals with tools to create safe spaces, provide empathetic responses, alleviate stigma of shame and help seeking, and promote resiliency among students. Holmes explained NCC’s success as a pioneer in holistic services including victim’s advocacy, MALE Mentoring, Collegiate Recovery, food pantry, Success Closet, emergency assistance programs, and connection to community resources through direct case management.

As dean of the NCC Student Wellness Center, Holmes provides clinical outreach counseling, and connects students with qualified professionals and community resources who can offer support. The Student Wellness Center’s scope of services includes Single Stop services, screening and assessment, crisis intervention, personal counseling, support groups, referral services for chronic care, psycho-education, cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy and more. The Center provides assistance to special populations in need of therapeutic support groups such as veterans, single mothers, survivors of trauma and domestic violence, drug abusers and others.

Also at the convening, NCC’s Single Stop program was recognized for having identified the most financial resources of $12,500 for any one student in the country, and NCC was highlighted as a national model of success along with the campus culture of Blue Love.

Marbeth Holmes earned an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from Louisburg College and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Meredith College. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Holmes is a National Certified Trauma Clinician, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist.

Under her leadership, the NCC Student Wellness Center has been an ambassador for students in the community through these services, and by identifying nearly $4 million in federal, state, and local resources for NCC students since Single Stop’s inception in 2016.