National Office for School Counselor Advocacy (NOSCA)

Jennifer A. Dunn focuses on how national and state initiatives impact school counseling practice and translates to their role and responsibilities.

Dunn’s expertise is in creating a college-going culture that is systemic and sustainable despite the challenges within a large urban school system. Her use of nontraditional and innovative practices has given her students educational success despite the tremendous societal and institutional barriers that have thwarted the underserved population’s future endeavors for years.

Presently, Dunn provides professional development and creates tools that support counselors' day-to-day responsibilities, such as creating data-driven equitable college-going practices; encouraging college preparedness for elementary, middle and high school students; promoting academic rigor; and structuring programs for increased parent involvement.

Dunn started her career as a social studies educator in a large comprehensive high school. She taught college preparatory world history, United States history, and AP® Psychology and U.S. History. During her teaching career, she received the Teacher of the Year Achievement Award and was in charge of the culture and climate component of the school improvement team. She has always encouraged academic rigor within the classroom, but also ensured that support structures were in place to promote student achievement.

In 2000, Dunn became a professional school counselor in a large, urban school system. During her tenure, she had the opportunity to start a small high school. She served as the only school counselor for four years and had a 95 percent graduation rate and an 88 percent college acceptance rate in a school system that usually graduated approximately 40 to 60 percent of its students.

Dunn has helped students and their families through community organizing strategies and experiential project-based learning activities. She believes that students become an active part of their learning by constructively challenging the structures in which they lean in order to create a more self-aware lifelong learner.

She is past president of the Maryland School Counselor Association that focuses on advocating for the school counseling profession through state-wide professional development as well as federal and state initiatives that encourage best practices for increasing student academic achievement. Currently, she is an active board member, and developed and chairs the research committee for the organization.

Dunn received her B.S. in history education from Hampton University in Virginia and her master’s degree in school counseling from The Ohio State University Transforming School Counseling Program, received an Education Leadership Certificate from George Washington University and, studied abroad at the University of Swaziland, Africa.