OCICU President's Advisory Committee

Dr. Tom Flynn Alvernia College (PA)
Dr. Jerry Greiner Arcadia University (PA)
Dr. Mary Pat Seurkamp College of Notre Dame (MD)
Dr. Bill Fox Culver-Stockton College (MO)
Dr. Kathleen Ross Heritage University (WA)
Dr. Joseph Burke Keuka College (NY)
Dr. Art Kirk St. Leo University (FL)
Dr. Jeanne Neff The Sage Colleges (NY)

Dr. Thomas F. Flynn is the sixth president of Alvernia College. Prior his appointment as president in July 2005, he served as the senior advisor for the Council of Independent Colleges at the National Center for Higher Education in Washington, D.C. Dr. Flynn also served nine years at Millikin University in Illinois as president, provost and professor of English. He also spent fourteen years on the faculty of Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland.

A native of Boston, Dr. Flynn earned a B.A. in English at Boston College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Harvard University's Institute of Educational Management and New Presidents' Institute and has spent a sabbatical in the President's Office at Georgetown University, where he assisted on strategic planning and a symposium on Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

Dr. Greiner became the 19th president of Arcadia University in July 2004. The former provost of Hamline University, is a practicing clinical psychologist. During his nearly 30 years at Hamline in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he held several deanships. As provost Dr. Greiner served as the university's chief academic officer, chief operations officer and chair of University Council.

Dr. Greiner received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a master's and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Cincinnati. He is the founding member of the Associated New American Colleges (ANAC), a national organization that works to highlight and advance the value of comprehensive universities, those that offer both liberal arts and professional studies.

Since July 1997, Dr. Mary Pat Seurkamp has served as the first permanent lay president of College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Under her leadership, the College has seen extensive campus and facility renewal, a growing academic program, healthy or increasing enrollment in all programs, and a dramatic increase in philanthropic support. Dr. Seurkamp recently led Notre Dame through a strategic planning process which reaffirmed the College's central commitment to the education of women. She represents Notre Dame with significant participation on national and local boards.

Before her arrival at Notre Dame, Dr. Seurkamp served at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York for 21 years. During that time, she held the positions of vice president for institutional planning and research, vice president for academic services and planning and acting vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. Seurkamp graduated from Webster University in 1968 with a B.A. degree in psychology, from Washington University in 1969 with an M.A. in guidance and counseling, and from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1990 with a Ph.D. in higher education.

Dr. Fox has been the 24th president since May 2003 and brings a distinctive background, perspective, and vision to Culver-Stockton College. His background includes faculty experience at Howard University School of Divinity, service as associate professor of philosophy and history at Montgomery College in Maryland, and teaching history at Goucher. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Religion, and History at Culver-Stockton College. While leading a church in California, he was adjunct professor of church history at the Claremont School of Theology and president of the Clinebell Institute, a pastoral care and training center for eastern Los Angeles County.

ODr. Fox received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St. Lawrence University in 1975, a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University in 1978, and a Ph.D. degree in American Religious History from George Washington University in 1989. Ordained to the ministry in 1978, he has led churches in metropolitan Boston, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and is currently affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

As founding president, Dr. Ross has led Heritage University from a small liberal arts college of 85 students in 1982 to its present enrollment of more than 1,300 students.

Dr. Ross is nationally known as a leader in higher education, especially in the field of cross-cultural communication. Under her leadership, Heritage continues to fulfill its mission in bringing a quality liberal arts education to a multicultural population. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Dr. Ross was on of two people in 1995 to receive the Washington State Medal of Merit award. In 1997, she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, the so-called "Genius Award."

Dr. Ross holds a B.A. degree from Fort Wright College, an M.A. from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School. At Claremont, she studied with Peter Drucker and Howard Bowen and did her dissertation on cultural factors affecting American Indian students in higher education.

Since August 1997, Dr. Burke has served as the eighteenth president of Keuka College. A recipient of the prestigious American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship, he holds a bachelor of science degree from the United States Air Force Academy; a master of arts degree in International Studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Denver. Dr. Burke has served as a Middle East Fellow, sponsored by the American Professors for Peace in the Middle East, and as a Malone Fellow, sponsored by the National Council on US-Arab Relations.

His distinguished career includes service as a scholar, administrator, and educator at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as service in several national educational leadership roles. Dr. Burke was elected as the first military officer to serve as Chair of the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. He currently serves as Chair of the Independent College Fund of New York, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Air Force Academy Association of Graduates.

Dr. Kirk assumed the presidency of Saint Leo University in January 1997. He was previously the president of Keuka College in New York for 13 years. Dr. Kirk brings to Saint Leo an extensive educational background as well as in-depth experience in leading colleges through periods of change. Since his arrival, the University's enrollment has increased, the graduation rate of athletes has increased significantly, and a new management information system is in place to better serve the University's 12,000+ students at 16 extension locations. The University - which has regional Centers in five states, an on-line degree completion program as well as sites at several corporate locations - has spent the past year in strategic planning and is currently developing a comprehensive master plan for its University Campus.

Dr. Kirk received a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in administration and supervision from Kean College of New Jersey. He holds a doctorate from Rutgers University.

Dr. Neff became the eighth president of The Sage Colleges in July 1995. She came from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, where she served as Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty for nearly ten years. Dr. Neff helped found the Associated New American Colleges (ANAC), a national consortium of independent comprehensive universities and has long been active on boards and in national higher education associations. She spent a number of years at Wheeling Jesuit University, first as a faculty member and scholar in the emerging field of women's literature and, later, as dean. During her tenure there, Dr. Neff was the first woman to hold the position academic vice president at a Jesuit institution.

Dr. Neff is co-host of the popular 51%, a prize-winning news program about women, produced at WAMC-FM, Northeast Public Radio, and carried nationally by more than two hundred stations. She is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and received a master's degree in English from Rice University and a Doctor of Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University, where she held one of the first Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women's Studies.