Rate My Professor Tameka Grimes

Tameka Grimes served as Assistant Professor of Counselor Education in the School of Education at Virginia Tech from 2018 to 2024. She earned her PhD in Counseling and Student Personnel Services (P-16) from the University of Georgia in 2018, MA in Counseling from Wake Forest University in 2011, and BA in Psychology and Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. A National Certified Counselor, Grimes previously worked as a professional school counselor in suburban and rural high school settings, Co-Director of Student Support Services, and consultant to K-12 school counselors in urban and rural districts. She served as President of the Virginia Alliance for School Counseling from 2021 to 2022.

Grimes specializes in racial trauma and trauma-informed practices in rural communities, creative arts in counseling, rural school counselor professional identity and practice, and mental health service provision in school settings. Her key publications include "Exploring the phenomenon of rural school counselors’ professional identity construction" (Professional School Counseling, 2020), "Faculty perspectives on strategies for successful navigation of the dissertation process in counselor education" (The Professional Counselor, 2020), "The impact of racial trauma: A crucial conversation in rural education" (The Rural Educator, 2022, with S.K. Roosma), "The school to prison pipeline: Quantitative evidence to guide school counselor advocacy" (Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 2021, with L.E. Welfare et al.), "A rural ecological school counseling framework" (Professional School Counseling, 2023, with A. Fears and S. Henry), and "Understanding the Experiences of Rural School Counselors Implementing Trauma-Informed Practices" (Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 2023, with J. Kirsch et al.). With over 237 citations on Google Scholar, her work advances counselor education in rural and multicultural contexts. Grimes received the 2021 Outstanding Pre-Tenure Counselor Educator Award from the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, 2023 Rural Scholar in Residence at Virginia Tech's Center for Rural Education, and 2015 NBCC Minority Fellowship.