Mary B. Marcy began her tenure as the ninth president of Dominican University of California in 2011. A recognized national leader in higher education innovation, at Dominican she is drawing on institutional strengths to create a distinctive student experience that highlights signature work, academic excellence, mentoring, and engagement. This work has received numerous national and regional recognitions, including the Higher Education Civic Engagement Award from The Washington Center and the selection of Dominican as a Voter Education Partner of the US Commission on Presidential Debates. In the last six years, Dominican’s four-year graduation rate has increased by 78 percent, and the University has won the PacWest Academic Achievement Award seven of the last eight years.

President Marcy serves on the Board of Directors of the Council of Independent Colleges, the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California, the Presidents’ Trust of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the editorial board of the Journal of Liberal Education. In 2015, she was selected as an Arthur Vining Davis Fellow to the Aspen Ideas Festival. For four consecutive years, President Marcy was selected as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and was named to the publication’s “Forever Influential” Hall of Fame in 2015.

President Marcy earned her Doctorate of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Politics from the University of Oxford and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communications with honors from the University of Nebraska. She has published extensively on issues of diversity, leadership, and strategy in higher education.

Before joining Dominican, she served as Provost of Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Vice President at Bard College. In her 25-year career, she has served in leadership roles at both public and private institutions of higher education.