Distinguished Research and Practice Fellow Award

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh School of Education professor Maureen W. McClure has dedicated her career to insuring educational access in the United States and abroad. Her more than 30 years of devotion will be recognized with the National Education Finance Conference Distinguished Research and Practice Fellow Award.

The Distinguished Fellow Award is given annually to ten higher education-affiliated professionals who have displayed exemplary research and practice in the field of public education finance. The award—regarded as one of the highest in that field—will be granted on Feb. 12 during the sixth annual National Education Finance Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

A professor within Pitt’s School of Education since 1983, McClure is an associate professor of administrative and policy studies and a senior research associate in the Institute for International Studies in Education. She served as the chair of the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies from 2004-07.

McClure’s research focuses on education for the next generation. Her approaches to insuring educational access range widely, from tracking new globally available distance-education technologies, to monitoring state-level support for U.S. public schools, and assisting in the rebuilding of educational systems in nations that have recently experienced a national crisis. To this end, McClure has worked alongside colleagues in Bosnia, China, Indonesia, and Iraq, among other nations.

“I feel that schools are each generation’s moral obligation to help the next. Future generations, both in the United States and around the world, need to safely and efficiently succeed past generations, ” said McClure. “Across the globe, today’s young people are inheriting the most complicated civilizations, technologies, and environments we have ever known. It’s a tough job. Crisis, like natural and man-made disasters, can seriously disrupt these generational transitions. I am proud that my students work tirelessly every day in the tough jobs of education, both in the United States and internationally.”

McClure has been a longtime collaborator with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She is currently serving as a senior vice president on the Board of Directors of Americans for UNESCO. Domestically, McClure is an elected school board member for the Riverview School District, where she is currently serving as the school board’s president.

Doctoral students advised and mentored by McClure have gone on to hold positions at UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education and Culture. As a Pitt professor, McClure teaches courses in global and international education, education and development debates, social theories of education, strategic planning, and resources management.

McClure earned a PhD degree in educational finance and policy, a Master of Business Administration degree in applied economics in the nonprofit sector, and a Master of Science degree in educational administration at the University of Rochester. She also possesses a Master of Arts in secondary education and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Allegheny College.

The National Education Finance Conference is being held Feb. 10-12 at the Omni Hotel in Jacksonville, Fla. The annual conference provides a forum focused on school finance to enhance education for both young and adult learners. The conference provides a venue for collaboration and discussion among elected officials, postsecondary educators, school district administrators, professional organizations, and researchers concerned with education revenue generation, distribution, and expenditures.

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