2019 Massachusetts Higher Education Excellence Award

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) will honor Judith Block McLaughlin, senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with a 2019 Excellence Award at a ceremony to be held in the Massachusetts State House, Room 428, on Tuesday, April 30 at 3 p.m.

McLaughlin teaches and advises master’s and doctoral degree students and served for nearly two decades as director of the Higher Education Program at the school. She is the founding chair of the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents and has worked with more than 1,000 college and university presidents since the program’s inception in 1990.

She also chairs the Harvard Seminar on Presidential Leadership and teaches in other Harvard executive education programs, including the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Crisis Management in Higher Education. She has written and consulted extensively on leadership transitions, presidential assessment, board-president relationships, senior staff functioning and board governance.

“As a scholar and as leader of the Harvard Seminar for New Presidents, Judy is recognized nationally as a thought leader and mentor who nurtures effective college presidents–preparing them for the multiple responsibilities that await in their new roles,” said NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas.

Since 2003, NEBHE has formally recognized people and groups with New England Higher Education Excellence awards for their exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and advancement of educational opportunity. Past Massachusetts recipients have included the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and noted oceanographer Robert D. Ballard.

From 2007 to 2015, McLaughlin served as chair of the Massachusetts Public Education Nominating Council, the body that nominates candidates to the governor for appointments to the higher education governing boards in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including the board of higher education and the boards of trustees of the 15 community colleges, nine state colleges and universities, and the University of Massachusetts.

McLaughlin served as a trustee of Bridgewater State College (now University) for two terms from 1996 to 2006; was a member of the board of the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester, Mass. from 2001 to 2006; and was on the Board of Advisors and Directors of the Academic Search Consultation Service from 1987 to 2005. From 2006 to 2011, she was co-editor-in-chief of the Jossey-Bass New Directions in Higher Education series. Since 1995, she has chaired the Paul R. McLaughlin Fellowship Committee at Suffolk University Law School.

Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard, McLaughlin was a high school social studies teacher, dean of student affairs at two colleges (Wheelock College in Massachusetts and Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C.) and executive director of the National Academy of Education.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s in social studies and doctorate in in administration, planning and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.