Maria McKenna

Biography

Professor McKenna is an Professor of the Practice holding a joint appointment in the Department of Africana Studies and the Education, Schooling, & Society program. She is also the Sr. Director of Undergraduate Scholars Programs in the Center for Academic Transformation and Excellence, including the Transformational Leaders and AnBryce Scholars Programs.  McKenna received her Ph.D. from Saint Louis University in Educational Foundations after completing undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University.  Her teaching and research span the disciplines of education and ethnic studies focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical contexts of American education. As a qualitative researcher with expertise in community-based and youth centered research methods, she focuses on youth empowerment, integral ecology and regenerative pedagogy, care theory, and Montessori/peace education. She is particularly interested in understanding and caring for public school environments and the constituent groups that use those schools. She teaches exclusively at the undergraduate level offering courses in youth empowerment, integral ecology and environmental racism, urban education, educational philosophy, and qualitative research. Professor McKenna a recipient of the 2023 Dockweiler Award for Advising,  the 2017 Reinhold Niebuhr Award for Social Justice, and the 2015 Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.  In her spare time, she supports and champions the work of the Moreau College Initatiave, Joy Blooms,  Good Shepherd Montessori School, TutorND, and LaCasa de Amistad.