Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy Bio

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D., currently serves as the president and CEO of AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education). She joined AACTE in January 2025, after serving as a distinguished professor and dean of the School of Education at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., for over eight years.

During her tenure at AU, Holcomb-McCoy implemented various programs that heightened the visibility of the school within the University and on a national stage. Notably, under her leadership the SOE became a stand-alone school in 2019 and grew its enrollment from 200 to more than 1,500 students. In addition, she led the development and implementation of the AU/District of Columbia Public Schools Teacher Pipeline Project and secured a multi-million grant from JP Morgan Chase to launch the stackable credentialing project, Advancing Early Education Collaborative (AEEC) with DC area partners.

Before leading the School of Education at AU, Holcomb-McCoy 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 Faculty Diversity Initiative. She also served as an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University of Maryland College Park and as director of the School Counseling Program at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

She received her bachelor’s in early childhood education and master’s in school counseling degrees from the University of Virginia and earned a doctorate in counseling and educational development from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Holcomb-McCoy began her career as a kindergarten teacher, then went on to work as a school counselor and family therapist before transitioning to work in higher education. She is a 2023 ASCEND Aspen Institute Fellow, an American Counseling Association (ACA) Fellow, and she has been a prominent voice in research and advocacy for preparing the educator workforce, from teachers to school counselors and principals.