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Dr. Mary Grant, became the eleventh president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in 2002. Under her leadership, the College received full 10-year re-accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).
President Grant has also initiated the College’s first ever comprehensive strategic planning effort focusing on five major goals – recruitment and retention, academic assessment, student life and financial strength. Complementing this effort, President Grant established the Berkshire Compact for Higher Education, made up of business, community, government and educational representatives working to assess the higher education and lifelong learning needs of Berkshire County residents and employers and to identify new opportunities and strategies to better meet these needs. She has also worked to strengthen community and public school collaboration throughout the Berkshires, leading the way to the College being awarded over $500,000 in new grants to help sustain these partnerships – an important and unprecedented step for MCLA, with many of these new resources being used to advance science, math and technology.
Dr. Grant serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative, a pilot program providing laptop computers to middle school students in North Adams and Pittsfield. President Grant is also leading MCLA’s involvement in a statewide initiative to require laptop computers for all entering freshmen beginning in fall 2005 for which MCLA faculty have been preparing throughout the past two years.
President Grant holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from The Heller School at Brandeis University, a Master’s degree in public affairs from the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in sociology from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where she is now President.
Dr. Grant is a Commissioner with the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, a trustee of the Northern Berkshire Health Systems as well as the Norman Rockwell Museum and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority and the Berkshire County Regional Competitiveness Council. She also serves as an officer of the Berkshire Economic Development Corporation as well as vice-chair of its Education Committee.
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