LGBTQ & Women and Gender Studies
Ric Chollar is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who serves as the Associate Director for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) Resources. Ric spent his early years in Ohio: growing up in Dayton and earning a BA in Psychology and Sociology from Wittenberg University in Springfield.Ric earned a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan, where he interned with their Human Sexuality Program Office, one of the nation’s first university-based resource centers for gay and lesbian students.For the past twenty years Ric has worked in volunteer and professional positions serving the LGBTQ communities in and around the Washington, DC metro area; as support group leader, mental health therapist, prevention specialist, program supervisor, teacher, and trainer.Ric has been an adjunct faculty with George Mason University since 1987, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of Psychology and Counseling and now adjuncts for the Women and Gender Studies program. From 1996 through 2001, George Mason’s Counseling Center gave Ric the opportunity to facilitate a weekly support group for LGBTQ students and their allies, Journeys of the Heart.Prior to joining George Mason, Ric worked at the American College Health Association as the Assistant Project Director for a federally-funded HIV prevention program, “College Students in High-Risk Situations,” geared toward LGBTQ students at colleges and universities across the U.S.