About the Provost

KerryAnn O’Meara became Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost and Dean of the College on July 5, 2023. She is a Professor in the Higher and Postsecondary Education Program in the Organization and Leadership Department. 

KerryAnn’s scholarship and leadership are highly integrated and focus on creating a more diverse and inclusive academic workplace. She has designed, tested and shared evidence-based strategies to remove barriers and improve full participation for scholars from historically minoritized groups with particular attention to faculty hiring, retention, workload and evaluation. 

Prior to joining Teachers College, KerryAnn served as Professor of Higher Education, Distinguished Scholar Teacher and Special Assistant to the Provost and to the President for Strategic Initiatives at the University of Maryland. She served as Director of the University of Maryland ADVANCE program there for ten years, designing evidence-based interventions that resulted in documented improvements in the hiring, professional growth, retention and advancement of diverse faculty, and improved workload equity in academic departments in three state systems. A prolific scholar and consultant, she received continuous funding from the National Science Foundation since 2010 and worked with over a hundred campuses on reforms related to faculty evaluation, workload, hiring and retention.

KerryAnn also served as Associate Dean of Faculty and Graduate Affairs at the University of Maryland’s College of Education. As Special Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives, she developed and implemented campus-wide DEI programming for 30,000 students, faculty and staff and led implementation of the University of Maryland’s strategic plan. KerryAnn was chosen as a 2021-2022 American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow, was elected and served as President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in 2020.

Prior to joining the University of Maryland, KerryAnn held academic appointments at Harvard University Graduate School of Education and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University Maryland, an M.Ed. in Higher Education from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from the University of Maryland.