Dr. Cheryl Ohlson has more than two decades of experience in the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Boston College, and later completed graduate studies at The George Washington University, where she earned a Master’s degree in early childhood special education and a doctoral degree in child development and early childhood special education.

Cheryl began her career as a teacher within the District of Columbia Public Schools, teaching at Smothers Elementary School. Cheryl also served on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University and has more than ten years of experience teaching graduate-level courses in early intervention, child development, early childhood education, and early childhood special education. During her tenure at GWU, Cheryl was a recipient of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Head Start Research Fellowship, supporting her research related to the impact of Head Start services on young children and their families.

Cheryl has also worked as an educational consultant, providing training and consultation within public schools, charter schools, and early childhood development programs across Washington DC. She has worked closely with system and program administrators to create and implement systems-change plans that support the provision of best practices in early childhood programs, and provided coaching, mentoring, and professional development to teachers. She also recently worked with faculty at GWU to design an online teacher training system for early childhood teachers in Department of Defense early childhood centers across the country and abroad. This system will soon be used to train all Department of Defense early childhood educators in the provision of culturally and linguistically responsive practices. 

Cheryl joined the Master Educator team in 2010, and is currently serving as Senior Master Educator for the Early Childhood and Language Acquisition Master Educator teams. In addition to managing these two teams, Cheryl observes and works with pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and early elementary teachers.