Bio

Having been associated with East Mississippi Community College since her undergraduate days on the Scooba campus, local product Danielle D. McDade is in her fourth year of her second stint as EMCC’s head cheerleading coach.

Under McDade’s direction, EMCC’s cheerleading team enjoyed one of the program’s most successful seasons in school history this past year by earning a 10^th-place showing in the Small Coed Game Day division at the 2023 UCA and UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship held this past January in Orlando, Florida. In addition, six members of EMCC’s 2022-23 cheer squad have moved on to compete at the four-year level, with four now cheering at Southern Miss and one each competing for Mississippi College and West Alabama.

A DeKalb native, McDade has served as an adjunct psychology and health and physical education instructor at EMCC since 2009. She also currently doubles as the guidance counselor at Kemper Academy in her hometown.

McDade’s involvement with East Mississippi began during her two years as an accounting/business major while also participating as a cheerleader. After graduating from EMCC in 1994, she went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mississippi State University in 1996.

Having completed her master’s degree in counseling/psychology from the University of West Alabama in 2006, McDade became a full-time EMCC staff member in 2003 when she worked in the business office as a student account receivable clerk. She also previously worked with EMCC’s school newspaper, The Collegian, and served as a cheer sponsor before earning her initial stint as EMCC’s head cheerleading coach and dance team coach in 2005.

The former Danielle Darnell and her husband, Wade, have one son, J.T., an EMCC graduate who is serving in the United State Marines, and one daughter, Chaney, who is a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri.