Norma Snipes Marcere (October 21, 1908 – August 10, 2004) was an American educator. After being rejected from employment opportunities due to her race, Marcere became the first African-American counselor and school psychologist in the Akron City Schools.

Marcere was born on October 21, 1908, inCanton, Ohio. She graduated fromCanton McKinley High School in 1926.^[1] After graduating from McKinley, Marcere worked to pay for her teaching degree tuition atKent State University.^[2] After earning her teaching degree, Marcere graduated with aBachelor of Science degree in elementary education and aMaster of Arts degree in counseling.^[3] With these degrees, Marcere applied to teach in her hometown of Canton, however, a superintendent refused to hire her based on her race.^[2][4] As a result, her first teaching placement was at Edmund A. Junior High. As her career developed, she became the first African-American counselor and school psychologist in the Akron City Schools.^[2][4]

In 1969, Marcere was elected a lay member of the Youngstown Diocesan Board of Education.^[5] Nearly a decade later, in 1976, Marcere retired from teaching and wrote two autobiographies.^[2] The two books were later formed into a play by Lois DiGiacomo in 1994^[6] which was performed in front of an audience of more than 12,000 people.^[7]

In 1973, Marcere was named Junior League Woman of the Year. In 1979, Marcere established the Project for Academic Excellence (PAX), a Saturday school for underachieving inner-city elementary students. This led to the development of Study, Think, Read, Investigate, Volunteer and Excel (STRIVE), a program for minority students that focused on social issues and personal responsibility.^[8]

In 1991, Marcere was awarded the Norma Award, named after Norma Sigler Atkins Rowlands, for her educational work.^[9] In 1998, she earned the Sister Thea Bowman Medallion from the Office for Black Catholic Ministries of the Diocese of Toledo.^[10] She was inducted into theOhio Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.

Marcere died on August 10, 2004, of natural causes.^[8]

• 1908 births
• 2004 deaths
• African-American activists
• African-American educators
• African-American women educators
• African-American schoolteachers
• Kent State University alumni
• Schoolteachers from Ohio
• American women educators
• 20th-century African-American women
• 20th-century African-American educators
• 21st-century African-American educators
• 21st-century African-American women

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