BIOGRAPHY

Cathy Maris leads the Community Learning and Engagement Department. She provides strategic oversight and collaborates with faculty, instructors, staff, campus and community partners to conceive, develop and implement in person and online courses and public programs in the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, and creative arts serving adults 18-100+ years. Cathy directed the Glasscock School’s Sol LeWitt Project, co-developed the OpenRICE initiative, collaboratively developed the Facing Race initiative, co-chairs the Glasscock Art Committee, and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council.

She has over 25 years’ experience developing, directing and sustaining collaborative initiatives in higher education, continuing education, lifelong learning, museum education, arts education, early childhood education, family learning and intergenerational learning. She was inaugural Executive Director and Education and Grants Director of Kidzu Children’s Museum (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) and has held positions with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, the University of California-Berkeley Maternal and Child Health Program, and Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Child and Infant Development Project. Cathy has a BA in psychology from Carleton College and an MA in clinical psychology from the University of British Columbia. An avid learner, she recently completed courses on facilitative leadership for social change, academic strategic planning in constantly changing environments, storytelling with communities, and cow painting.