Dr. Demetrius Cofield is an Assistant Professor in Counselor Education at The Ohio State University and teaches courses in the masters and doctoral graduate counseling program. He earned his Ph.D in Counselor Education and Supervision from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2022. He has over 10 years of experience in mental health and addictions counseling working with underserved marginalized populations. He is a licensed counselor and supervisor in North Carolina, Texas and soon to be licensed in Ohio. He works in private practice specializing in men's issues, mood disorders and anger management. Additionally, he has worked with non-profit and community-based agencies specializing in working with clients who have been displaced, those diagnosed with HIV and those who identify as LGBTQIA+. He takes a humanistic approach to counseling and prides himself on being an authentic, culturally conscious, critical thinking counselor and counselor educator. He also stresses the importance of these characteristics as a counselor to his students. He is passionate about mental health advocacy in the Black community and Black representation in counseling and counselor education. He is committed to anti-racist pedagogy in counselor education. Dr. Cofield joined The Ohio State University in August 2024.
Dr. Cofield’s research interests are rooted in his dedication to being a practitioner-scholar-activist. As a qualitative scholar his research agenda revolves around critical social justice advocacy and education in counseling with specific focus on the mental health of Black men, the impact of social and racial injustices on the mental health of Black people, anti-Black racism, Black masculinity and the application of critical theories in counseling. His work has appeared in the Journal of Black Studies, Metropolitan Universities and The Professional Counselor. He also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and Education and Urban Society. His current research is focused on Black men and their lack of counseling engagement, the experiences of Black men in Counselor Education programs and using critical social justice theories in counselor education.