Sheryl "Mac" McCollum () is an American crime analyst, college professor, author, and founder and director of the non-profit Cold Case Investigative Research Institute based in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, and a crime scene analyst for a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

affiliate.

Education

McCollum graduated high school from

Woodward Academy Woodward Academy (also known as Woodward or WA) is an independent, co-educational college-preparatory school for pre-kindergarten to 12th grade on two campuses located in College Park and Johns Creek, Georgia, United States, within the Atlanta m ...

, a preparatory school in Atlanta. She received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

and a master's in criminal justice from

Kaplan University Kaplan University (KU) was a private online for-profit university owned by Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It was predominantly a distance learning institution, maintaining 14 ground locations across the United States. The ...

Career

McCollum's law-enforcement career began in 1982 at the Rape Crisis Center at

Grady Memorial Hospital Grady Memorial Hospital, frequently referred to as Grady Hospital or simply Grady, is the public hospital for the city of Atlanta. It is the tenth-largest public hospital in the United States, and one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in th ...

in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, she was director of the Metro Atlanta Cold Case Crime Analysis Squad. During the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the coordinator for the Crisis Response Team that planned and trained for four years and responded to the

Centennial Olympic Park bombing The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, on July 27, 1996, during the 1996 Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed ...

, providing victim services. She also served as the Georgia state director of

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada and Brazil that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and strive for stricter impaired drivin ...

. McCollum in 2004 founded Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI), a collaboration between

Auburn University Montgomery Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) is a public university in Montgomery, Alabama. Established by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1967, it is governed by the Auburn University Board of Trustees as a member of the Auburn University system. ...

Faulkner University Faulkner University is a private Christian university in Montgomery, Alabama. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. History The university was founded in 1942 by Dr. Rex Turner, Dr. Leonard Johnson and Joe Greer as Montgomery Bible Sch ...

and Bauder College. CCIRI unites researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community to work collectively to advance research, training and techniques in solving cold cases. CCIRI has since worked with 27 colleges and universities, more than 8,000 students and 600 experts, who have volunteered their time and talents to solve cold cases. a nationwide volunteer network made up of 27 colleges and universities, 600 forensic professionals and 5,000 students that assist victims' families and law enforcement by working on unsolved homicides, missing persons and kidnapping cases. Beginning in 2008,

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

followed four Bauder College students as they built case files in the

Chandra Levy Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – May 1, 2001) was an internship, intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek P ...

and

Natalee Holloway Natalee is a female given name. It is a variant of the name Natalie, though uncommon according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Notable people with the name include: *Natalee Caple (born 1970), Canadian author of novels and poetry *Natalee Holloway (born ...

cold-case investigations, led by McCollum and her Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. In 2009, McCollum's students, after pursuing the Levy investigation for more than a year, narrowed the suspect list to one. McCollum held workshops at CrimeCon 2017, a conference advertised as a "true-crime theme park" for amateur sleuths. McCollum's workshops included Wine & Crime sessions, which she described for CrimeCon's blog: "I’m giving you exactly what we know about a case that we’re working on. I’m holding nothing back. You’ll get the autopsy reports, the crime scene photographs, witness statements-- anything that we have, you will have. Then you go to work." McCollum in August 2019 joined

CBS46 WANF (channel 46) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Television and is co-owned with independent station WPCH-TV (channel 17) and low-power, Cl ...

as a

crime scene investigator Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

EMMY Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning CSI Atlanta, working exclusively with a Channel 46 team to investigate unsolved Georgia cases, including the 1946 Moore’s Ford Bridge Lynching case. She is a contributing writer for CRIME online, a crime-fighting website founded by

Nancy Grace Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23, 1959) is an American legal commentator and television journalist. She hosted ''Nancy Grace'', a nightly celebrity news and current affairs show on HLN, from 2005 to 2016, and Court TV's ''Closing Arguments' ...

, television personality and former prosecutor. On December 15, 2022, McCollum started her podcast, "Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum," which explores cold case crimes.

Awards

* McCollum was inducted in March 2023 into the National Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame, receiving the Scherer-Remsberg Lifetime Achievement Award. * CSI Atlanta, which McCollum appears in, won a 2020 EMMY Award, Southeast.

Book

McCollum co-authored, with cold-case expert Betsy Ramsey, the book ''Cold Case: Pathways to Justice'', released in 2010 by Pearson Learning Solutions.

Personal life

McCollum lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and two children.

References

External links

CBS46 News profile of Sheryl McCollum

Imagine Publicity bio of Sheryl McCollum

Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum Release
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCollum, Sheryl Living people People from Atlanta Criminology educators American nonprofit executives Georgia State University alumni Law enforcement in Georgia (U.S. state) Educators from Georgia (U.S. state) 21st-century American women educators American women philanthropists Anti-crime activists Woodward Academy alumni Year of birth uncertain 21st-century American educators Kaplan University alumni 20th-century American women educators 20th-century American educators 20th-century births