Dr. Ian Levy is an Assistant Professor of School Counseling in the Department of Educational Psychology at Rutgers University. Ian is a New York City native, emcee and former High School counselor in the South Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. Ian is also the Vice President of Counselor Educators for the New York State School Counselor’s association where he leads efforts to build solidarity amongst counselor educators across New York state. Ian’s research interests include the examination of mental health practices in urban schools, which entails interrogating the role of the school counselor and other school staff to ensure the emotional lives of young people are adequately addressed.

Most notably, Dr. Levy piloted the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Hip Hop based counseling framework in urban schools. This particular hip hop therapy program was featured on various news outlets including the New York Times, and CNN. In 2016 Dr. Levy was named the New York State School Counselor of the Year. In his current role as an academic, Dr. Levy remains focused on addressing the multifaceted roles of the school counselor as not only a direct provider of counseling services but a counselor educator. As a new professional, Dr. Levy has been recognized as an emerging leader by the Association of Humanistic Counseling. Through his work at Manhattan, Dr. Levy now engages in the formal training of school counselors in culturally sensitive counseling and pedagogical practices in schools.

Levy’s scholarly work exploring the intersections of hip hop lyric writing, and mixtape creation, and social and emotional outlets in urban schools can be found in the Journal of Professional School Counseling, the Professional School Counselor, the Journal for Counselor Preparation and Supervision, the Journal for Social Action in Counseling Psychology, the Journal of Poetry Therapy, the Journal of Multicultural Education, and the Journal of Social Work with Groups. Additionally, Dr. Levy has edited the HipHopEd Compilation of Hip-Hop Education, Volumes 2 and 3. Ian is currently under contract with Routledge for a monograph titled Hip-Hop Spoken Word Therapy in Urban School Counseling: A Culturally Relevant Approach which concretizes a body of research developed over the course for 4 years, on Hip-Hop Spoken Word Therapy.

Levy credits his scholarship to the person growth he was afforded after being introduced, and welcomed into, New York’s hip-hop scene. Experiences in and around hip-hop culture have informed how Levy uses hip-hop personally as an emcee, and uses hip-hop based school counseling interventions and research. In May of 2023 Levy dropped his second debut album “Sometimes, I Forget Where I’ve Been” which is available on all streaming platforms. Hip-hop lyric writing continues to be his emotional refuge, like it has been for so many others.