Bio

Mary Ellen is a member of the Academy's Board of Directors and president of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission in Alameda, California. Dr. Petrisko’s extensive experience in academic leadership spans a variety of institutions across the United States and internationally. She has also worked as vice president at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia, PA; deputy secretary of higher education for the State of Maryland; vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland University College; and academic vice president of the Tai Sophia Institute (now the Maryland University for Integrative Health). She has also worked in higher education as a teacher of philosophy in the Netherlands and in the US and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University.

Mary Ellen is a graduate of the Academy's Leading by Being® program. Of Leading by Being Mary Ellen said. “Next to learning how to read, Leading by Being has been the most important learning experience in my life.”