Dr. Alison Dunton of The Family Center named a Leading Woman by The Daily Record

The Daily Record selected Alison Dunton, Psy. D., of The Family Center to receive The Daily Record’s 2013 Leading Women Award.

The Daily Record’s list of Leading Women honors 50 women who are 40 years of age or younger for the accomplishments they have made so far in their careers. A panel of six judges selected the honorees based on their professional experience, community involvement, and commitment to inspiring change.

The Daily Record launched the Leading Women Awards in 2010, at the 15th annual Maryland’s Top 100 Women celebration, to recognize the next generation of Maryland’s women leaders.

Nominees for Leading Women were judged on their education and career history, examples of mentoring, career-related officer and board memberships in professional, business or trade organizations, volunteer involvement in civic and nonprofit organizations, awards and honors, professional accomplishments, and commitment to inspiring change in their organization or the community.

“The Daily Record’s 2013 Leading Women Award winners are inspiring change throughout Maryland,” said Suzanne Fischer-Huettner, publisher of The Daily Record. “In addition, they are working to balance home, work, children, education and community commitments. These ‘Leading Women’ are our next generation of leaders, and I applaud them for all they do and all they will do in the years to come.”

The winners will be honored on Thursday, December 5, at a reception and dinner at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor, 300 Light Street in Baltimore. Winners will be profiled in a special magazine that will be inserted into the Friday, December 6, issue of The Daily Record and available online at www.TheDailyRecord.com.

Sponsors of The Daily Record’s 2013 Leading Women Awards include Chimes, presenting sponsor; Wells Fargo, leadership sponsor; and Epsilon Registration and VPC, Inc., visionary sponsors. 

About Dr. Dunton

Dr. Dunton is a dynamic and driven psychologist who – in her daily profession – brings tremendous relief to children and families by treating emotional, learning, and behavioral disorders, including ADHD, depression, anxiety, and autism-spectrum disorders. She also provides parent-management training, play therapy, live parent coaching, ADHD assessments, psycho-educational testing, social/emotional evaluations, and family therapy to help children and adolescents deal with grief and loss

But her leadership shines just as bright outside of the counseling setting; indeed, this is where she truly inspires change.  Having earned her doctorate degree just six years ago, Dr. Dunton has already: 1) written a book chapter and trained other psychologists and related professionals in grief and loss counseling; 2) created a mentorship program to match graduate students with early-career psychologists throughout Maryland to better prepare them for post-graduate practice; 3) been voted by psychologists statewide to the office of Secretary of the Maryland Psychological Association; and 4) created a one-of-a-kind externship program for 4th-year doctoral students at Loyola University Maryland to receive high-level training in both clinical matters and the business of being a practicing psychologist.  Her commitment to developing the next generation of psychologists, although she is removed from them by only a few years, is a shining example of effecting change and, ultimately, helping countless more children than she can personally treat.

Although her career is a mere six years old, Dr. Dunton has enthusiastically helped to develop the careers of other young psychologists, because the best way – on a large scale - to inspire change in the lives of children is to keep the best clinicians engaged in a healthy, thriving practice.  She has done this in two primary ways. 

First, she co-created the externship described previously to fill a significant gap in the training of psychologists – doctoral programs simply do not teach the business side of practicing psychology. 

Second, as Chair of the Early Career Psychologists Committee of the Maryland Psychological Association, Dr. Dunton created the thriving mentorship program for younger, practicing psychologists to mentor graduate students in the “real life” aspects of establishing and running a successful practice.  Again, Dr. Dunton has focused on multiplying her skills so that dozens of students can be mentored, rather than simply focusing on one student herself.

About The Daily Record

For 125 years, The Daily Record Company has provided trusted legal and business information to Maryland readers. In addition to the daily newspaper published five days a week, The Daily Record publishes its website, www.TheDailyRecord.com; six blogs, On the Record, Eye on Annapolis, Maryland Business, Movers and Shakers, Generation JD and Small Biz Buzz; four e-newsletters, TDR Insider, Real Estate Weekly, TDR Auction Notices and Best Practices; and a variety of special publications on topics of interest to Maryland business and legal professionals.

The Daily Record also honors leading Marylanders through eight annual awards events:  Maryland’s Top 100 Women, Influential Marylanders, 20 in Their Twenties, VIP List, Maryland’s Most Admired CEOs, Innovator of the Year, Leadership in Law and Leading Women. The Daily Record is owned by The Dolan Co., trading as DM, of Minneapolis, Minn.