mary-churchill.jpg

Education.
Innovation.
Passion.

read Mary's CV
 

Mary is passionate about the role of public engagement in higher education. In her thirty years of leadership experience, she has tirelessly advocated for a new paradigm of leadership informed by diversity, collaboration, and equity. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from Northeastern University in Boston and has taught courses in International Studies, Sociology, and Political Science.

Mary is currently the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement at the newly established Wheelock College of Education and Human Development at Boston University (est. 2018). Prior to her role at Boston University, she was the Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) at Wheelock College in Boston. She is also on the board of the Massachusetts Network of Women Leaders in Higher Education which is affiliated with the American Council on Education's Inclusive Excellence Group and involved with ACE's Moving the Needle initiative focused on advancing women leaders in higher education. 

She and her husband and their teenage son are active in their Roxbury neighborhood in Boston, and Mary serves on several community-based committees and boards. Originally from the “pets-or-meat” world portrayed in Michael Moore’s Flint, Michigan, she was the first in her family to attend college.

 
Testimonials

“Mary … worked closely with our Professional Studies Program, helping to transform it into an effective and profitable entity. Thanks to her leadership, we were able to recreate the work done to more valid and relevant programming. The result was more engagement of the faculty and new programs that will bring more profit to the academic programs on campus.”

– Dr. Sue Henderson
President, New Jersey City University

“(Mary’s) commitment to education – and education as a device for social justice – is inspiring and gives purpose to her most excellent analysis. Stay tuned. Much more is coming from Mary in terms of books, papers, consulting, innovating, leading in higher education and I, for one, intend to keep learning from her.”

— Dr. James Stellar
Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University at Albany, SUNY

“Mary brings the right people together for the right conversation at the right time — and out of this come new ideas. I never read her blogs or op-eds or listen to her podcasts without seeing things differently. Mary’s perspectives, fresh, creative, and generous, are always eye-opening.”

— Gregory Britton
Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press

“(Mary) is an academic innovator, a strategic thinker with great political acumen and ability to build relationships across sectors and within higher education. Mary is also very involved in women’s leadership and continues to mentor and support women across the career ladder. Her candor is both refreshing and inviting, allowing women to learn from one another and to lift up one another. She leads with her values and with a deep sense of purpose and commitment.”

— Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández
President, Greenfield Community College