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Dr. M. Elsa Soto Leggett is the 74th president of ACA, the leading organization providing education, community and professional development opportunities for professional counselors and counselors-in-training. She is also the association’s fourth Hispanic, Latinx President.

Soto Leggett is a professor and practicum & internship coordinator at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. She has been in higher education for over 20 years. During these years she has contributed to the education and supervision of professional counselors preparing for mental health and school counseling. Likewise, her work as a supervisor to provisionary licensed professional counselors and future play therapist takes her work from the classroom into the counseling field. Contributing to the full cycle of the development of professional counselors.

Soto Leggett has participated in leadership in various positions in counseling organizations from local to national. She was a founding member of the Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling (ACAC) and served as its president from 2013 to 2015. She continues to contribute to the Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling (JCAC) as a member of its editorial review board. She was also the president of the Texas Counseling Association (TCA) from 2022 to 2023. Her leadership and dedication to service has been recognized with numerous awards and honors over the years, including the Texas School Counselor Educator of the Year Award, ACAC’s National Leadership & Advocacy Award, and the Ashley Jadine Foundation Distinguished Recognition.

Her clinical experience, research and publications focus on counseling children, solution focused counseling, solution focused play therapy and supervision. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles, book chapters and presented at local, state, regional, national and international conferences. She co-edited Directive Play Therapy. More recently she has been focusing on servant leadership, cultural humility and counselor wellness.

Elsa remains dedicated to her role as a certified school counselor, licensed professional counselor and supervisor, and registered play therapist supervisor.