Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy

Dean of the School of Education and a Distinguished Professor at American University

An American Counseling Association (ACA) Fellow with 30 years of experience as a former kindergarten teacher, elementary school counselor, family therapist, and most recently university professor and administrator, she has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and wisdom. Dr. Holcomb-Mccoy is currently the Dean of the School of Education and a Distinguished Professor at American University (AU). She is also the author of the best-selling book (including revised edition) School Counseling to Close Opportunity Gaps: A Social Justice and Antiracist Framework for Success (Corwin Press) and the edited book, Antiracist Counseling in Schools and Communities (ACA Publishing).  

In her six years as Dean, Dr. Holcomb-Mccoy has significantly increased enrollments via the launch of successful online graduate programs and through new partnerships such as becoming the higher education partner with Urban Teachers, a national teacher residency program.  In addition, she founded AU’s Summer Institute on Education, Equity and Justice, and the AU Teacher Pipeline Project, including an early childhood educator stackable credentialing partnership with Trinity Washington University, and Martha’s Table, a DC-based non-profit organization.  With colleagues in the AU teacher preparation program, she is actively working to develop an antiracist curriculum for teachers-in-training.

Prior to leading the School of Education at AU, she served as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs campus-wide and Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University, where she launched the Johns Hopkins School Counseling Fellows Program and the $25M Faculty Diversity Initiative. Dr. Holcomb-Mccoy has also been an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University of Maryland College Park and Director of the School Counseling Program at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

A decorated scholar, she has written more than 100 publications, including articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and white papers. From 2014 to 2016, she served as a consultant to former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative, a program dedicated to supporting first-generation students make it to and through college.  A proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Dr. Holcomb-Mccoy holds her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia. She earned a doctorate in Counseling and Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She lives in Potomac, Maryland with her husband and two children.