Abstract
Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University and former Chair of the University’s Psychology Department died on August 24, 2023, at the age of 82. Steven left behind a legacy that reshaped the way psychologists approach mental health and well-being. This article serves as a tribute to Danish’s remarkable contributions and the profound impact he had on his students, clients, colleagues, and the broader field of psychology.
I met Steve in 1970 when he was a training supervisor at the Southern Illinois University Counseling Center. In the year of supervision and engagement, it was clear that Steve emphasized a proactive approach to mental health, focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles and empowering individuals to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and competence, a perspective representing a departure from traditional remedial approaches, highlighting Danish’s visionary stance in the field.
Steve’s accomplishments in the field were so very impressive. He was a faculty member and administrator at Southern Illinois, Penn State, and Virginia Commonwealth Universities. He established and was director of the Life Skills Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. This program evolved from his earlier work focusing on sharing a life skills development approach to preparing people for healthy living and thus helping them learn to manage the challenges and conflicts coming their way while maintaining healthy lifestyles. Early on, he was one who focused on preparing psychologists to be focused on positive human development and skills of prevention as an essential component of helping people, and he used the metaphor of the importance of life-saving skills while also teaching life-competency skills to prepare people for the challenges of their lives.
Among his many accomplishments, Steve was
• Chair of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Psychology
• a licensed psychologist and a diplomate in counseling psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology
• a registered sports psychologist of the Sports Medicine Division of the United States Olympic Committee
• a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and the president of the Society of Community Research and Action
• awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Prevention by the Prevention Section of the Society for Counseling Psychology in 2007
• awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Education at Michigan State University in 2008
• was active in the APA accreditation process, serving as a site visitor to programs.
Steve’s writing covered many areas of modern life, but consistently emphasized life skills development. The National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Education, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Diving, and the Athletic Footwear Association, among others, funded his research and endorsed his emphasis on early engagement focused upon skills learning and life competency abilities. His work was employed in sport, developmental psychology, substance abuse prevention, military and police training, among many of the areas of focus he addressed. Steve was a highly successful educator, as evidenced by his life skills program Going for the Goal, which earned him the National Mental Health Association’s Lela Rowland Prevention Award, and he was honored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services program for his emphasis on life skills training for adolescents. The program was a model for many of today’s social-emotional learning programs prevalent in schools around the nation.
In addition to his groundbreaking research and program development, Steve was instrumental in the establishment of the Journal of Prevention and Health Promotion. Danish played a pivotal role in shaping the field’s discourse through his involvement in the establishment of the journal through his advocacy for a title that reflected a proactive stance toward health promotion that epitomized his commitment to fostering healthy lifestyles and maximizing individuals’ potential.
Steve’s position regarding the word prevention in the title was that it implied stopping doing something—to prevent something from happening. His emphasis was on development, growing, creating—not preventing. The addition of health promotion to the title of the journal recognized the concern that he raised, for he was adamant we should create healthy lifestyles in order to facilitate the greatest opportunities for people and that this ability would lead to preventing many of the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive conflicts people experience.
Steve is survived by his wife, Carole, his two sons, Kyle and Chris, and his four grandchildren. They were truly prized in his life, and he was devoted to them.
This tribute to Steven Danish draws upon various sources, including testimonials from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Psychology Department, recognition from Michigan State University, and obituaries from reputable publications such as the Richmond Times Dispatch. Danish’s materials are also accessible through the West Virginia University College of Applied Human Services, a testament to his enduring influence in the field of counseling psychology.
https://psychology.vcu.edu/directory/faculty/danish.html
https://education.msu.edu/alumni/awards/steve-danish/
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesdispatch/name/steven-danish-obituary?id=53178266
https://fitpublishing.com/content/memoriam