Dr. Cynthia B. Greer
Dr. Greer is an Associate Professor in the graduate program in Counseling and Mental Health, a CACREP-accredited program in the School of Nursing and Health Promotion at Trinity Washington University. Dr. Greer co-designed the School Counseling/Urban Student track for candidates who are also interested in working with youth in agency settings. She has also served as a faculty member in the M.ED program in Curriculum and Instruction and was the lead faculty member for the specialization in Educating for Change, a program that Dr. Greer was instrumental in helping to restructure. The Educating for Change program focused on the study of educational systems and progressive school reform by examining the specific issues of diversity social justice and inclusion in the public-school curriculum.
Currently, she is serving as the Lead Faculty member for the research team on the Trinity Initiative on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma. One of the major goals of this initiative is to ensure that candidates in the counseling programs are ACEs and Trauma Informed and Responsive and form community partnerships to develop educational strategies to prevent and heal childhood trauma. The research team has partnered with the Center for Community Resilience (CCR) program of the Milken Institute School of Public Health/George Washington University. She is working with CCR on the “Changing the Narrative about Gun Violence” project that seeks policy changes about the root causes of gun violence. Dr. Greer also serves on the Board of The Playtime Project (formerly called the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.)
Dr. Greer has led the team in securing a sponsorship that resulted in a grant from Kaiser Permanente for a project to provide scholarships and continuing education/professional development for School Counselors and Clinical Mental Health practitioners who are providing support to the underserved communities of Wards 7 and 8 in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Greer is the recipient of the Maryland Counseling Association Diversity Achievement Award. She also received the “Voice for Children Award” from the District of Columbia Homeless Children Playtime Project. She is a recipient of the C. Harold McCully Award, an award given to recognize an outstanding counselor educator presented by the District of Columbia Counseling Association.
Her expressive arts interventions that were developed to support self-esteem among middle school girls were published in the edited book Expressive Arts Interventions for School Counselors and her career interventions have been published in Career Counseling Interventions: Practice with Diverse Clients. Dr. Greer’s essays, which speak to her childhood experiences, were chosen for publication in Little Patuxent Review, and one of the essays was chosen as a “notable” in America’s Best Essays in 2014. Another essay, in 2017, was nominated for the PUSHCART Award, a highly acclaimed national literary award.
Dr. Greer earned degrees in Higher Education Administration/Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Psychology.