“One of the trends that concerned me while serving as state consultant for school counseling is that there is so much more need at the local level for professional development for school counselors and other specialized instructional support personnel than the staff of the state department have the capacity to provide. My hope is that I can bridge that gap in my retirement by providing for some of those professional development needs.”

~ Cynthia Floyd

About Cynthia Floyd - Detailed Bio

Following her passion for helping others, Cynthia Floyd started her professional career as a school counselor in eastern North Carolina after graduating from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master of Education in School Counseling. Although she served students from a variety of backgrounds, she sought to work in schools with high-needs populations to help them overcome barriers to success. During her service as a school counselor, she created and facilitated numerous special programs to better engage students and families. For example, a middle school peer conflict resolution program and an elementary family literacy program that included early childhood education, adult education, PACT (Parent and Child Together time), and parent time. In addition to working in schools, Cynthia also worked part-time as a mental health technician and later as a psychology instructor with a local community college.

Cynthia joined the staff of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) in 2001 as a Student Support Services Consultant for school counseling and safe and drug-free schools. While in this position, Cynthia -

• contributed to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) publication School Counseling Principles: Foundations and Basics with “What Are the Top Three Most Pressing Implications of NCLB for School Counselors?”

• led the revision of the North Carolina School Counseling Job Description to be aligned with national best practices as defined in the ASCA National Model for school counseling.

Along with technical assistance, one of her primary responsibilities as the state consultant was provision of professional development. Thus the State Board of Education adoption of the revised job description lead to her providing numerous training sessions across the state to support school districts and school counselors in the implementation of the new job description and the ASCA National Model. By the time Cynthia left NCDPI at the end of 2007, position cuts had lead to her being the consultant for school counseling, school social work, and general school psychology.

In late 2007, Cynthia accepted a position as the Executive Director for Student Services in a North Carolina public school district. Along with oversight of related programs such as school safety initiatives, drug prevention, and McKinney-Vento Homeless Education, Cynthia supervised and supported the effective implementation of the student support services programs of -

• school counseling,

• school social work,

• school psychology,

• school nursing, and

• student intervention specialists.

As she had done at NCDPI, she also actively served on multiple district, community and state committees and teams to foster collaborative support for the needs of children and families. Among these were the state team to reformat the School Counseling Job Description into the new Professional Standards format and the team to create an accompanying evaluation instrument.

In 2011, the North Carolina School Counselor Association (NCSCA) awarded Cynthia the Ruth McSwain Distinguished Professional Service Award, North Carolina’s highest award in school counseling for special and noteworthy contributions to the school counseling profession.

In 2014, Cynthia was invited to return to NCDPI as the consultant for school counseling. She welcomed this opportunity to further expand on the work of supporting school counseling and related specialized instructional support who serve students. Highlights during her second tenure with NCDPI included -

• collaborating with the state consultant for school psychology to establish the State Exchange for Student and Staff Wellbeing, a monthly convening of state-level personnel who work with fostering student and staff mental and physical wellbeing of students and staff;

• facilitating the creation of online self-paced mini-courses for school counselors and school administrators on implementation and evaluation of comprehensive school counseling programs;

• conducting numerous live and recorded professional development opportunities and conference presentations;

• collaborating to make the Go Alliance Academy asynchronous online courses available in North Carolina to enhance school counselor and other educator’s skills in promoting student career and college readiness;

• creating the NC School Counseling Leadership Team, a diverse group of education and business professionals, to strengthen schools and enhance the capacity of school counselors, CDCs and school administrators in graduating students who are truly career and college ready; and

• facilitating and securing a $2 million federal Project SERV grant for 12 school districts impacted by hurricanes

• serving on the NC Commerce NCCareers.org development teams to help develop the website content and functionality to be most beneficial to school personnel and others supporting career and college readiness.

During both employments with NCDPI, Cynthia served on the NCSCA Board of Directors and continues to serve on NCSCA committees in her retirement.

Prior to retiring from NCDPI, Cynthia invited NCSCA to collaborate on the creation of the North Carolina School Counseling Diamond Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize school counseling programs that demonstrate an exemplary data-informed and outcome-based comprehensive school counseling program. The application process is an all-inclusive collection of 11 components that align with the North Carolina Professional School Counselor Standards and ASCA National Model. Schools that earn the NC School Counseling Diamond Award state recognition are then eligible for ASCA RAMP (Recognized ASCA Model Program) which is awarded by ASCA as the highest national recognition for a school counseling program.

Cynthia continues to support implementation of effective practices in specialized instructional support to enhance positive student academic, career, social, emotional and mental health outcomes by providing professional development services and serving as an adjunct professor with the Salem College Master of Education in School Counseling program.

In April 2020, Cynthia Floyd joined Tom Williams with the Public School Forum of North Carolina for Perspective | Education Matters: Social Emotional Learning During COVID-19 regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the social emotional learning and mental health of students.

Note that this broadcast was recorded prior to Cynthia Floyd retiring from the NCDPI Consultant position February 2022.

While at NCDPI as the consultant for school counseling, Cynthia was also selected to participate in Leadership NC which she refers to as one of her best both personal and professional growth experiences and continues to remain involved.