Watch a video conversation with President Roger Casey. (Recorded January 2010)

Dr. Roger Neal Casey became the ninth President of McDaniel College of Westminster, Maryland, and Budapest, Hungary, in July 2010.  During President Casey’s tenure, McDaniel has risen to the top tier of national liberal-arts colleges in US News and top-25 small colleges by Parade. Dr. Casey has overseen an architectural award-winning renovation of Englar Dining Hall and Whiteford Residence Hall and opened a new library coffee shop. Construction will begin soon on a $10-million new stadium and locker-room renovation. 

In the past year, the McDaniel community has received three major national teaching awards; hosted a national conference on North Africa; formed a partnership with Africa University in Zimbabwe; launched new academic programs in cinema, Middle-Eastern Studies, Arabic, and Environmental Studies; enacted new orientation programs for parents; and received major grants from DuPont, Freeman, Nora Roberts, NSF, and Mellon, among others. NPR featured McDaniel in a piece on college finances. This fall, McDaniel will enroll its most diverse first-year class ever (26%).

A professor of English, Dr. Casey teaches courses in media, popular culture, drama, and leadership. He has spoken internationally to hundreds of organizations and authored numerous articles and the book, Textual Vehicles: The Automobile in American Literature. His cultural analysis has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, and on CNN, ABC and CBS. He appears regularly on Baltimore’s WYPR. Roger’s current scholarship addresses the impact of generational issues and social media on higher education. A Kellogg Fellow, Roger has traveled in over seventy countries, studying the role of vision in the creation and sustenance of diverse communities.

Dr. Casey has also received theatrical recognition. His credits include acting the lead in David Mamet’s Oleanna and directing Pulitzer-Prize-winners Three Tall Women and How I Learned to Drive. He and his wife, Robyn Allers (a writer, actor, and former director of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum), most recently appeared in a new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s letters to his wife, Zelda.

A Phi Beta Kappan and first-generation college graduate, President Casey holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from Florida State University and a B.A. from Furman University in his native South Carolina. From 2000-10, he served as Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rollins College in Winter Park (Orlando), Florida.  For nine years prior, he served Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama as an Associate Dean and professor. Dr. Casey is also the co-founder and former director of the Associated Colleges of the South’s Teaching and Learning Workshop. He received Distinguished Teaching awards from Birmingham-Southern and Florida State University, was a nominee for the Carnegie National Professor of the Year, and was awarded the Decoration of Honor by Rollins.

Dr. Casey’s guiding principles:
“Every day I want to learn something, and every day I want to make something better.”