UFT Admin
- Retired School Counselor
Doris Chisolm, a school counselor with the Department of Education during the 1980s and ’90s, forged a career centered in compassion during her tenure with New York City public schools. She died on June 10 near her home in Waldorf, Maryland. She was 92.
Doris, who retired from Springfield Gardens HS in Queens in 1996, was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and first worked as an account clerk typist at SUNY’s College of Old Westbury. After her husband died and she became the sole support for her four children, Doris began taking classes toward her bachelor’s degree at SUNY Old Westbury while continuing to work there. She then earned her master’s degree in counselor education from CUNY’s Queens College, and transitioned to working for the city Department of Education (then known as the Board of Education) in 1983.
As a school counselor, Doris treated her students with respect and addressed their problems with creativity and determination. “She was an empathetic listener,” said her daughter, Tuneen Chisolm. “She thought beyond limits — her whole approach to working with children was about examining possibilities and then figuring out how to get there.” Doris decided to switch from working at the college to working at a New York City public high school, in part, to “invest in students at a younger age,” said Chisolm.
Fellow school counselor Rochelle Chalfen, remembered Doris as “friendly and always smiling.” Pamela LeMelle-Gray, the now-retired principal of Springfield Gardens HS, which closed in 2007, remembered Doris as “a wonderful role model. She treated the students like they were her own children.”
During the 1980s and ’90s, Doris was active in voter education and registration drives as a member of the Allen AME church in Jamaica, Queens, and continued that service at her church in retirement. “She was very service-oriented, even outside of her career. She lived as an adult through the Civil Rights era, and that meant something to her,” said Chisolm. Doris did such an excellent job at voter education during the pandemic era, on Zoom, that her pastor referenced those workshops at her funeral.
Doris’ drive and determination to care for her family and contribute to the wider community, both in her profession and in retirement, made a deep impression on her children. “She didn’t let circumstances or ‘odds’ stop her,” said Chisholm. “If you want to do something, you commit to doing it and do it well.”
In addition to daughter Tuneen Chisolm, Doris is survived by her children Tambra Chisolm, Tonya Miles and Jay Chisolm and her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and extended family.
