About Mary K. Grant
Grant chairs the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), from June 2007-08. She assumed this role followng a one year term as chair of the Massachusetts State College Council of Presidents (COP). In August 2007, she joined the Berkshire Creative Economy Council's executive committee.
In the fall of 2006, President Grant was appointed by Gov. Mitt Romney to serve on two committees – the Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative (CITI) Fund Advisory Board and the Robert H. Goddard Council on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
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. Through the program, which will become a model for the state, MCLA is serving as the professional development hub for teachers implementing the technology in their classrooms. In 2005, the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women appointed Dr. Grant as the first-ever Berkshire Region Commissioner.
President Grant came to MCLA from the University of Massachusetts, where she served as the chief academic officer and deputy C.E.O. of UMassOnline, a position within the Office of the President. Dr. Grant has been a Senior Fellow with McCormack Institute – now the McCormack Graduate School at UMass Boston; she also served as the director of the Center for Social Policy and faculty chair for the Master of Science in Public Affairs Program.
Dr. 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 Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where she is now President. Her research has addressed a variety of social policy and public funding issues.
President Grant also is a commissioner with the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, a trustee of the Norman Rockwell Museum, and serves on the Boards of Directors of 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. Additionally, Dr. Grant is a corporator of the Berkshire Museum, an associate with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, as well as a member of the American Council of Education Network of Women Leaders in Higher Education. In September 2007, Governor Deval Patrick announced that President Grant would co-chair the education and technology subcommittee of the state's Readiness Project Leadership Council.
Mary K. Grant is a passionate advocate for public higher education and was selected as the 2003 Woman of Achievement by the Organization for Massachusetts Business & Professional Women (BPW).
