JHU's Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy to lead American's School of Education

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Johns Hopkins University's vice provost for faculty affairs who has been recognized for both her excellence in teaching and her efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in higher education, will be the next dean of American University's School of Education, the school announced last week.

Image caption: Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy

Holcomb-McCoy, who joined Johns Hopkins in 2009 as a professor of counseling and human development at the School of Education, will assume her new role July 1.

"I am honored to be the next dean of the School of Education at American University during this transformative and innovative period in urban education," Holcomb-McCoy said via email. "I look forward to being the leader of a school with the vision of collaborating with local school districts and education partners to create the next generation of highly effective K-16 educators and leaders for our most vulnerable communities."

American's School of Education—previously part of the School of Education, Teaching, and Health—was elevated to an autonomous unit earlier this academic year. It is home to five programs—Bilingual Education, International Training and Education, Teacher Education, Special Education: Learning Disabilities, and the newly redesigned Education Policy and Leadership program—as well as the Institute for Innovation in Education.

"We are thrilled that Dr. Holcomb-McCoy will be joining the American University community in such a strong position of leadership," said Stacey Snelling, who has led AU's School of Education as dean over the past year. "She has had an exemplary career in service to the idea that education is a human right, one that we have an absolute obligation to ensure."

At Johns Hopkins, Holcomb-McCoy works closely with faculty across the university to support and promote their work. Most recently, she has helped lead key university efforts aimed at implementing new mentoring approaches for junior faculty and at increasing faculty diversity.

Previously she served as vice dean of academic affairs and chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services at the School of Education.

Her scholarly research focuses on the measurement of multicultural self-efficacy and cultural competence in counseling, the evaluation of urban school counselor preparation and training, and school counselors' influence on low-income students' college readiness. She has authored four books and journal special issues, 16 chapters in edited books, and more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and she currently serves as an associate editor of the Journal for Counseling and Development.

Holcomb-McCoy served as a consultant to the Obama administration's Reach Higher Initiative and was among the speakers at the White House's 2014 Summit on Higher Education at Harvard University.

Holcomb-McCoy earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Virginia and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

"Cheryl has played an instrumental role in several important university initiatives that have made us stronger and will continue to shape Johns Hopkins for years to come," JHU Provost Robert C. Lieberman wrote in an email announcing Holcomb-McCoy's departure. "I am especially grateful to Cheryl for her steadfast and determined leadership on faculty diversity, mentoring, and satisfaction."

Added Holcomb-McCoy: "I am incredibly grateful to my colleagues at Johns Hopkins University for giving me the opportunity to be an academic administrator and also for the support and mentoring along the way. I extend my sincere appreciation to the university administration for the opportunity to co-lead the faculty diversity and mentoring initiatives over the past two years. While these initiatives were recently launched, I'm positive that they will be successful because of the administration's deep commitment to them. For this I'm grateful."