Gay Whitlock, a charter member and former vice president of the Virginia Counselors Association Foundation, served as associate dean of the VCU School of Education prior to her retirement. She received degrees from The College of William and Mary in Virginia, University of Miami in Florida, and the University of Virginia.
During her distinguished career in education, she was supervisor for guidance services in Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia, assistant professor at the University of Georgia and associate professor at Virginia State University.
She began her career as an elementary school teacher and was inspired to become a school counselor when she witnessed the devastation of a U.S. Navy family following a submarine accident.
Following retirement Whitlock served as director of the Center for School-Community Collaboration and interim division chair of health, physical education, and recreation at Virginia Commonwealth University.
She was a member of the Richmond Community High School Advisory Council, the UVA Curry School of Education Foundation Board and former president of Alpha Alpha Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, International Society.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Whitlock worked to bring about legislation to mandate elementary school counselors in Virginia. She was a founding member of the steering committee for the state’s Commission on Elementary School Guidance, served as treasurer of the Virginia Counselors Association and was the author of “A Developmental Model for Guidance in Elementary Schools.”