Tressie McMillan Cottom is an American writer, sociologist, and professor. She serves as an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and is an affiliate of the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. Additionally, she contributes as an opinion columnist at The New York Times.

Previously, she was an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. McMillan Cottom is the author of Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy and Thick: And Other Essays. She has co-edited works such as For-Profit Universities and Digital Sociologies. Her essays have appeared in publications like The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Furthermore, she co-hosts the podcast Hear to Slay with author Roxane Gay. Her expertise is frequently sought in print and television media, focusing on inequality and American higher education.

In 2020, McMillan Cottom was recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship for her work "at the confluence of race, gender, education, and digital technology."