Sister Sharon Slear, SSND will receive The Catherine T. McNamee, CSJ, Award from the National Catholic Education Association at its annual convention March 26 in Indianapolis.
The McNamee Award honors leadership that promotes a vision of Catholic education that welcomes and serves cultural and economic diversity. The award will be presented during the convention’s general session, in front of more than 8,000 delegates.
Sister Sharon celebrates her 20th anniversary at College of Notre Dame this year, where she currently serves as dean of education. An alumna of the College, she has served in numerous roles including chair of the education department and director of graduate studies, before assuming her current position as dean of education in 2004.
“Sister Sharon’s vision, energy and enthusiasm have been the guiding force of College of Notre Dame’s education department for the last 20 years, and she is richly deserving of this prestigious award,” said Mary Pat Seurkamp, president of College of Notre Dame. “We are proud to claim this extraordinary woman as an alumna, professor, colleague and friend.”
Sister Sharon designed, developed and implemented College of Notre Dame’s first doctoral program, in Instructional Leadership for Changing Populations, which launched in 2004, and the Certificate of Advanced Study in Education in Instructional Leadership in 2000.
“Sister Sharon continues her efforts to transform the world by addressing cultural respect and response to the cries of our earth and its people through the ministry of education,” said Sister Mary Fitzgerald, SSND, an education department colleague, who nominated Sister Sharon for the NCEA Award.
Under Sister Sharon’s leadership, College of Notre Dame has established numerous partnerships with colleges and school systems. Examples include Professional Development Schools to provide professional education to teachers in Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel and Harford counties.
Most recently, she initiated a program with Quality Leadership University in Panama to bring special education graduate students to Baltimore to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching degree while interning in Baltimore City public schools. After graduation, the students will then teach for two years in the city school system.
“Working in conjunction with the leadership of Baltimore City Public Schools, Sister Sharon was instrumental in securing a grant to fund the Panama project,” Sister Mary said. “This cooperative venture between College of Notre Dame and Baltimore City Public Schools was mutually beneficial by providing the city with much needed special education teachers and the College with the resources to be able to offer the program to the Panamanians.”
Over the years, Sister Sharon has obtained more than $1 million in grants to support educational program development throughout Maryland.
Sister Sharon was named to Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 1999 and 2006. Additionally, she has been presented with College of Notre Dame’s Mission Medal and Woodbourne Service Award for Extraordinary Commitment to the Children of Baltimore City.
She has made numerous professional presentations including “Emotional Intelligence, Anxiety and Resiliency” to the Association of Child Education International in 2007; “Who’s in Charge: Leaders for the 21st Century” to the National Catholic Education Association in 2006; and “Social Skills…Are We Teaching Them?” at the 12th International Conference on Learning in Granada, Spain, in 2005.
Her memberships include Maryland Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Maryland Association of Teacher Educators, National Council of Mathematics, Maryland Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She is also a member of Phi Delta Kappa Education Honor Society and Kappa Delta Pi International Honors Society in Education.
Sister Sharon holds a Doctorate in Educational Administration, awarded with highest distinction, from Boston College. She received a Master of Arts in Chemistry from Villanova University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Pre-medicine from College of Notre Dame. Additionally, she participated in the MLE Institute in Higher Education at Harvard University.
March 24, 2008
