February 18, 2019
Bob Hazard Director
FriendsforEduction502.org
(413) 824 7421
rmorganhazard@gmail.com
COD FACULTY ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE ENDORSES DUNNE AND BAILEY IN COD BOARD ELECTION
Glen Ellyn, Illinois - February 18, 2019. The College of DuPage Faculty Association’s Political Action Committee has endorsed Maureen Dunne and Dan Bailey for COD’s Board of Trustees in the April 2 election. The CODFA PAC supports these candidates based on their ability to protect and develop the College’s financial and cultural resources, while advocating for students in the changing environments of the 21st century.
CODFA President Shannon Toler said, “The first major task of this new Board of Trustees will be the hiring a new leader for College of DuPage. This leader will guide us through the changing landscape of both 21st century education and our district. While all the candidates have strengths, we believe that Dunne and Bailey will best represent the long-term interests of our diverse community.”
Maureen Dunne, PhD, a COD alumna, was the first community college student to become a Rhodes Scholar. Her business and research interests are centered at the intersection of cognitive learning sciences and technology, including applications to autism. Dr. Dunne has experience serving as a trustee and is uniquely qualified to guide COD to anticipate and respond to the evolution of work and technology. For more information, visit http://maureendunne.com/.
Dan Bailey, RN, also a COD alum, began as a COD student in the 1970s. Later, after working as a locomotive engineer, he turned to COD to change careers and completed a degree in nursing. He feels keenly the power of education to change student’s lives at any life stage. Bailey is a natural watchdog for the stewardship of community resources and will keep the interests of students front and center. For more information, visit https://danbailey.org/.
CODFA represents COD’s full-time faculty, teachers whose careers are dedicated to lifting the educational attainment of students in our district.
DuPage County Native and Rhodes Scholar Maureen Dunne Announces Candidacy for College of DuPage Board of Trustees
WHEATON, IL, February 15, 2019 (For Public Release) – Dr. Maureen Dunne, the first and only graduate from Downers Grove South High School to be named a Rhodes Scholar-- and also the first community college graduate ever in history -- to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship award, has announced her candidacy for College of DuPage Board of Trustees.
Dr. Dunne graduated early from Downers Grove South and then attended the College of DuPage where she was active in student leadership activities and was enrolled in the Honors Program. “I got my start at COD and I am now running for the Board of Trustees because I want to contribute to its future success.” After COD, Dunne transferred to the University of Chicago to complete simultaneous Bachelors and Masters degrees before heading to Oxford University for her doctorate and then subsequently to a post-doctoral fellowship program held jointly by Harvard University and MIT. After completing her studies, Dr. Dunne co-founded a venture-backed educational technology company in Palo Alto, CA, before returning to DuPage County with her husband and their three children to reconnect with family and friends.
Dunne stated that she believes the crucial goal of preparing an extremely diverse student body for a rapidly evolving employment landscape needs to be the College’s top priority.
“To be successful, the community college of the present needs to prepare students for the world as it will be 10 and 15 years from now,” she said. “Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Automation are not short-term trends. Having solid experience in the technology industry in Silicon Valley, both as an entrepreneur and an advisor to multiple venture capital firms, I have developed a very strong appreciation for the stunning pace and inevitability of recent and emerging technological advancements and the tsunami of automation now underway. Many current careers will not exist at all in a decade, and many more will be transformed beyond recognition and demand new skills and aptitudes. Many of our current residents and taxpayers here in DuPage County will need to acquire new tools to be competitive and successful in that world.”
Dr. Dunne has already been working with COD representatives over the past year to put in place a process involving public and private grant funding to help the school prepare for the future without having to place any additional burden on local taxpayers.
In addition to her technology and science background, Dunne serves on the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Association of Greater Chicago and as an auxiliary board member for Access Health, is a Paul Harris Fellow as an active Rotary Club member, and is currently the Innovation and Technology Chair for the executive board committee of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation. She also recently co-founded “Code DuPage”, a program to help local DuPage County high schoolers become more technology literate as they prepare to move into adulthood, and the Transition2Success Project, which helps local high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder transition to higher education or into a career.