Office of the Dean

Maria Scharrón-del Rio

María Scharrón-del Río is the dean of the School of Education and a professor in the School Psychology, Counseling, and Leadership Department. They previously served as associate dean and as program coordinator in the School Counseling graduate program.

They have been part of the Brooklyn College community since 2006. Scharrón-del Río worked toward the original accreditation of the School Counseling Graduate Program by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and later lead the program’s reaccreditation under new revised standards. In 2019, they started working as associate dean, assisting in the transition to a new accrediting body, the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation.

Their areas of expertise are in multicultural counseling (with children, adolescents, families, and groups) and in developing multicultural competencies in students and in institutions. Their research, scholarship, and advocacy focus on ethnic and cultural minority psychology and education, including liberation pedagogy/psychology, intersectionality, multicultural competencies, LGBTQ communities, gender variance, and well-being.

A predoctoral Ford Foundation and American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program fellow, Scharrón-del Río received their Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. They completed their clinical internship at the Harvard Medical School and later worked as an assistant child psychologist at the Washington Heights Family Health Center, a primary-care clinic that serves a predominantly Latin immigrant community in New York City. After coming to Brooklyn College, Scharrón-del Río received the 2017 Claire Tow Distinguished Teacher award. They are an active leader in GLARE (GLBTQ Advocacy in Research & Education).

Scharrón-del Río’s focus is on assisting the School of Education community—students, staff, faculty, and community partners—in the process of post-pandemic reconnection and growth, and in moving the school closer to a community that thrives in the support and advocacy that is nurtured by solidarity. They are committed to supporting our communities in the continued critical self-reflection and growth that is required to champion anti-oppressive and liberatory approaches to education, counseling, and psychology.