History

The Women Faculty Leadership Committee (WFLC) was originally charged in 1998 by then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, John Hollwitz, to put the call of Decree 14 of the General Congregation 34 documents: “Jesuits and the Situation of Women in Church and Civil Society” into action.  In particular, the group’s focus was to increase the presence of women as academic leaders on campus.  The original membership involved women in the formerly named College of Arts and Sciences (now Loyola College) and was at a point when very few women had visible academic leadership positions such as Department Chairs, Board on Rank and Tenure members, Compensation committee members, and administrative positions in the Office of Academic Affairs.  After the January 2000 conference, the Business School was included in the committee and the group came under the leadership of the Vice President of Academic Affairs, David Haddad. The group held several events each year, usually one in spring one in fall, focused around encouraging Loyola women faculty to engage in discussions about how to best create and encourage development of leadership positions at the university. The group became inactive several years ago. In 2015-16 the group was reinvigorated and reformed as an affinity group called the Women Faculty Leadership Coalition. Its current mission remains to help women faculty at Loyola University Maryland increase their presence and engage more as academic leaders on campus.