Green & Grey Alumni Speaker Series to feature accomplished scholar, leader in higher education
| By Molly Robey
Scholar and Loyola graduate KerryAnn O’Meara, Ph.D., will deliver the next lecture in Loyola University Maryland’s Green & Grey Alumni Speaker Series on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. in the 4th Floor Program Room.
KerryAnn O’Meara, ’93, Ph.D., is a professor of higher education, director of the ADVANCE program, and associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate studies at the University of Maryland. She was recently elected president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
O’Meara’s experiences as a student with the Center for Community Service and Justice and as an English major fueled her interest in equity and full participation in higher education. She will speak on some of the lasting gifts of her Jesuit education—gifts which, she says, act as “light in dark places” and inspire her life as a social scientist studying higher education, and as a mentor, parent, partner, and friend. Seating is limited, and registration is recommended.
O’Meara, who is an accomplished scholar and leader in higher education, received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in Education Policy. She worked as a research associate at Harvard University's Project and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2007. She teaches courses on the academic profession, organizational change in higher education, women in higher education, ranking systems in higher education, and a doctoral seminar.
O’Meara’s research has appeared in the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education Journal, Teachers College Record, Gender and Education, and Handbook for Higher Education Research among other venues. A resident of Columbia, Md., O’Meara also serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Higher Education and as associate editor for the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning.
Once each academic year, the Green & Grey Alumni Speakers Series invites alumni who were members of Loyola’s Green & Grey Society to speak on the Evergreen campus. Since 1989, Loyola University Maryland has selected a small number of men and women from the senior class who demonstrated excellence in academic, personal, and spiritual integration and committed service to Loyola. In the spirit of Jesuit ideals, the Society has served as advisors to the University leaders by identifying and communicating issues of significance present in the lives of community members.