Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick

Maryland’s first female state superintendent of schools, is known for her strong focus on student achievement, teacher quality and public-school funding. During her 19-year tenure that ended with her retirement in June of 2011, Grasmick enacted policies that included a preK-12 curriculum, statewide assessments and accountability by schools and school systems.

Under Grasmick’s leadership, Maryland’s public schools were ranked number one in the nation for three consecutive years (2009-2011) in Education Week’s Quality Counts report, and the momentum continued in 2012 when Maryland schools again topped the list of state report cards. A Baltimore native, she began her career in the classroom as a teacher of Deaf students at the William S. Baer School in Baltimore City.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Towson and Gallaudet universities respectively, Grasmick earned her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University. Her leadership earned her many awards, among them the Harold. W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education and the William U. Harris Award of Excellence, both national recognitions.

Dr. Edwin Welch '65 

President of the University of Charleston in West Virginia since 1989, has led the university through extensive growth and fundraising that doubled full-time enrollment, tripled the endowment, redefined the university’s mission, transformed its academic program and added schools of pharmacy and business. During his tenure, seven of the 11 buildings on campus were built, and the university received national acclaim for its leadership in outcomes-based learning and student assessment.

Welch, a Sociology major at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), began his teaching career at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he chaired the Sociology and Anthropology departments. He went on to positions as department chair and assistant dean at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, the academic vice president at Lakeland College in Wisconsin and provost at Wartburg College in Iowa.

A Maryland native, he also earned degrees from Boston University School of Theology and Boston University Graduate School. Welch studied international relations at the London School of Economics and political science and higher education administration at the Harvard Institution for Educational Management. His doctorate is in social ethics, and he is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.