Biography

Mary Oling-Sisay is the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at St. Norbert College (SNC) in De Pere, Wisconsin.  She is a 2009-10 Fellow of the American Council on Education. At SNC, she provides leadership for student-centered programming opportunities designed to enhance retention. As a member of the president’s cabinet, she partners with students, faculty, staff, administration and board of trustees to actualize a variety of institution wide initiatives that operationalize the mission of the college. She provides vision, strategic direction and management oversight for: Campus Safety; Career Services; Campus Life (Residential Living and Education, Judicial Affairs, Women’s Center, and Men’s Programming); Student Development (Leadership-Development, Service, and Engagement, Multicultural Student Affairs, and the Upward Bound Program); Health and Wellness (Health services, Psychological Counseling, and Testing Services).

Prior to joining SNC in 2007, Dr. Oling-Sisay held several administrative positions at the City College of the City University of New York, and at California State University, Chico. She values and constantly seeks intentionality in creating environments that connect students’ curricular and the co-curricular experiences in order to enhance their retention and success. Mary possesses a breadth of experience in student affairs leadership, conflict mediation, strategic direction and planning, and human and fiscal resource management.  She has provided leadership in developing initiatives that enhance equity, inclusiveness and diversity. She is adept at organizational capacity building in new and/or established organizations. Mary has experience facilitating collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs to attain a positive learning environment for students. She has presented on and written numerous articles on equity, inclusiveness and diversity; student affairs and; international relations.

Mary has also had teaching experience in international relations, educational leadership, women and gender studies. Mary had considerable experience in the media field as news anchor and reporter in Kampala, Uganda. Mary is affiliated with many higher education organizations and  has presented, written and consulted widely on a broad range of student affairs issues, including student judicial affairs, student culture and diversity, emergency preparedness, student leadership and campus programming.  Mary has served regularly as a National Association of Student Personnel Administration (NASPA) national conference proposal reviewer and currently serves as NASPA National Conference Programs Coordinator for the Fraternities and Sororities Knowledge community.  She also serves as an accreditation Consultant Evaluator for the North Central Association/ Higher Learning Commission.

Mary’s degrees include a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California, an M.A. in Public Communications from Fordham University, and a B.A. in English Literature and Linguistics from Makerere University. She speaks 10 languages and also a graduate of the Higher Education Resources (HERS) Institute for Women in Higher Education at Bryn Mawr College.