Previously he was the Oscar and Anne Mauzy Regents Professor of Educational Research and Development, Department Chair of Educational Psychology, and Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he directed the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis.

Cokley's research is focused on racial issues and the impact of the imposter phenomenon in academic and mental health outcomes.

[citation needed] Then he received his master's degree in Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1993.

Cokley has challenged the continued use of psychometrically problematic instruments, and argued that both science and ideology have influenced the study of racial and ethnic identity.

He has also found GPA to be the best predictor of academic self-concept for African American students attending predominantly White colleges and universities (PWCUs) while finding the quality of student-faculty interactions to be the best predictors of academic self-concept for African American students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).