McDaniel College President Joan Develin Coley has been an educator and administrator at the selective private, liberal arts college since 1973. She was elected president on October 20, 2000, after serving as interim president for nearly a year, and is the eighth president to serve in the college’s more than 140-year history.

McDaniel College’s first female president and first to be promoted from the faculty ranks, Dr. Coley led the college through a major re-positioning that was launched in 2002 with its name change from Western Maryland College. She is currently spearheading the college’s most ambitious comprehensive fund-raising campaign.

Dr. Coley has realized many significant goals she set for the college, including the development and adoption of a new more global, interdisciplinary and multicultural undergraduate curriculum, the expansion of post-baccalaureate programs, the creation of the Center on the Study of Aging, and more than $45 million in campus improvements for academic study, student residential life and recreation. Most recently, she led the committee that developed the new strategic plan that charts the College’s course through 2014.   
 
Joining the faculty in 1973 as Director of the Graduate Reading Program, Dr. Coley went on to serve as Dean of Graduate Affairs and Chair of the Department of Education. Prior to her appointment as president, she served as College Provost for six years during which time she led the faculty in a revision of the curriculum and co-chaired the committee that produced the 2003-2008 strategic plan.

A recognized expert in reading instruction, Dr. Coley has crusaded to help students with serious reading disabilities. She pioneered and led for 26 years a four-week intensive summer reading clinic for up to 100 elementary and middle school students from Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Coley has contributed to the regional and national higher education agenda through her service as a member of the board of directors of the Wye Faculty Seminar, co-sponsored by the Aspen Institute and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Maryland Independent College and University Association, and as a team reaccreditation leader for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. She also currently serves as chair of the Centennial Athletic Conference.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Dr. Coley received an A.B. with honors from Albright College. She went on to earn both her master’s and doctorate in education from the University of Maryland. Her numerous honors include the 1989 Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading given by the Maryland Council of the International Reading Association. She has published extensively, writing articles and reviews for national journals and has authored, co-authored and edited several books.

In March 2004, she was named to the Circle of Excellence for being nominated as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record three times, and in 2007, she received a Girl Scouts of Central Maryland Distinguished Women’s Award. She is also a member of the Network 2000 of Greater Baltimore and on the board of CenterStage and BB&T.

Dr. Coley is a past member of the board of directors of Target Community & Educational Services, Inc., a nonprofit that provides community living, vocational and recreational services to adults with disabilities as well as a past board member of the local Chamber of Commerce.

 
McDaniel College Career Timeline:

• President--2001
• Interim President--2000
• Provost and Dean of the Faculty--1994-2000
• Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty--1993-1994
• Dean of Graduate Affairs, Professor--1992-1993
• Professor, Chair of Education Dept. & Director of Graduate Reading Program-- 1986-1992
• Director of Admissions--1985
• Associate Dean/Academic Affairs--1983-1985
• Director of Continuing Education--1982
• Director, American Publishers Assn. Literacy Project, Washington, D.C. (sabbatical)--1980-1981
• Associate Professor, Education Dept. & Director Graduate Reading Program--1977
• Assistant Professor, Education Dept. & Director Graduate Reading Program--1973

Accomplishments:

• Girl Scouts of Central Maryland Distinguished Women’s Award--2007
• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Albright College--2006
• Circle of Excellence, Top 100 Women in Maryland, Daily Record--2004
• Top 100 Women in Maryland, Daily Record--2000, 2002
• Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading at the Higher Education Level--1989
• Maryland Higher Education Reading Association, president--1975-76
• Mid-Atlantic Reading Research Consortium, president--1987-99