Scholarly Interests
Colleges and universities have the potential to be one of the most agency-enhancing institutions in our society. Embedded in their structures and cultures are exposure to new ideas, tools to discover and create knowledge, and transformative learning partnerships. These opportunities help individuals see the potential for strategic action. Yet colleges and universities can also create barriers to access for new entrants, and be slow to acknowledge the kinds of scholarship and teaching with the greatest chance to advance the public good.
Over the past 12 years, my work as both a scholar and practitioner has focused on helping colleges and universities to change their organizational structures, cultures and systems to improve the agency that actors within and outside them feel to achieve their goals. My ultimate goal is to help higher education leaders and individual faculty assume agency in achieving key goals that benefit the public good—whether those goals be connecting their teaching and research to the work of external partners, work-life integration, transforming graduate education to be more engaged, or the overhaul of outdated and exclusionary promotion and tenure policies.
At present, I am engaged in three overlapping lines of scholarship and organizational change intended to enhance the agency of individuals and their organizations. First, I am Co-PI for Research and Evaluation on a five year, 3.2 million Advance grant at the University of Maryland. I am studying the influence of professional growth (opportunities for learning, agency, professional relationships and recognition of contributions), and perceptions of support of professional growth on faculty satisfaction, retention, and productivity. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Second, I have developed a line of research into the careers and agency of civically engaged faculty. My research on this topic has been greatly informed by my practitioner experience within the field of civic engagement and aims to improve institutional scaffolding necessary for civically engaged faculty to have the greatest impact on the public good. I have worked collaboratively with the Kettering Foundation in this work.
My final line of scholarship focuses on reform in academic reward systems. Specifically, these studies examine reforms that expand definitions of scholarship, support faculty professional growth, and create greater equity for newer entrants to the academy.
My hope is that this collective body of work will help colleges and universities to become better incubators for individual and collective agency.
Biography
KerryAnn O’Meara is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the College of Education and affiliate faculty in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. KerryAnn serves as Higher Education Concentration Coordinator, and Associate Editor for Research Articles for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, and Associate Editor for the Journal of the Professoriate.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in fall of 2007, she served on the Higher Education faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previous to this appointment she spent two years at the Harvard Project on Faculty Appointments (now COACHE), and 5 years as a professional in Student Affairs and Academic Affairs, directing service-learning programs, undergraduate research, and in residence life.
In 1998 she received the Emerging Leader Award from the National Society for Experiential Education, in 2003 the Teacher of the Year Award, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and in 2008 the Early Career Research Award, from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, where she serves on the Board. KerryAnn teaches courses on the Academic Profession, Service-Learning and Community Engagement, Women in Higher Education, Ranking Systems, History of American Higher Education, and Organization and Administration. She consults with institutions, national associations, and networks on issues of faculty development, reform in academic reward systems, and community engagement.
Selected Publications
O’Meara, K. (2011). Inside the Panopticon: Studying academic reward systems (p. 161-220). In J.C. Smart, M.B. Paulsen (eds.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 26 New York, New York: Springer.
O’Meara, K. & Campbell, C.M. (2011, Spring). Faculty Sense of Agency in Decisions about Work and Family. Review of Higher Education. 34(3): 447-476.
O’Meara, K. Sandmann, L.R., Saltmarsh, J. & Giles, D.E. (2011). Studying the professional lives and work of faculty involved in community engagement. Innovative Higher Education. 36(2). 83-96.
O’Meara, K. (2011). Faculty Civic Engagement: New Training, Assumptions, and Markets needed for the Engaged American Scholar. John Saltmarsh and Matt & Hartley, (Eds). “To serve a larger purpose:” Engagement for Democracy and the Transformation of Higher Education. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Meekins, M. & O’Meara, K. (2011, Winter). Ranking Contributions to Place: Developing an Alternative Model for Competition in Higher Education. p. 6-9. Public Purpose. Washington, D.C.: AASCU.
Lounder, A. Waugaman, C., Kenyon, M., Levine, A. Meekins, R. & O’Meara, K. (2011). Following the Cuts: Effects of the Recession on Faculty Careers and Work Lives. Liberal Education. 97(1). 20-29.
O’Meara, K. & LaPointe Terosky, A. (2010, November/December) Engendering faculty professional growth. Change magazine. 42(6), 44-51.
O’Meara, K., & Bloomgarden, A. (2010). Prestige at what Cost: Examining the consequences of striving for faculty work-life, reward systems, and satisfaction. Journal of the Professoriate. 4(1). 40-74.
O’Meara, K. (2010). Rewarding Multiple Forms of Scholarship: Promotion and Tenure. (pp. 271-294) in Fitzgerald, H. Burack, C. & Seifer, S. (eds). Handbook of engaged scholarship, Volume I: Institutional Change. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press.
O’Meara, K. & Niehaus, E. (2009). Service-learning is…..How faculty explain their practice. Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, 16(1). 1-16.
Saltmarsh, J. Giles D. E. Jr., O’Meara, K., Sandmann, L. , Ward, E. & Buglione, S. M.(2009). The Institutional Home for Faculty Engagement: An Investigation of Reward Policies at Engaged Campuses. P. 3-30. Advances in Service Learning Research, Information Age Publishing.
O’Meara, K., Terosky, A.L. & Neumann, A. (2008). Faculty Careers and Work Lives:A Professional Growth Perspective. ASHE Higher Education Report, 34 (3). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Meara, K. (2008) Motivation for public scholarship and engagement: Listening to exemplars. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 12(1), 7-29.
O’Meara, K. (2008). Graduate education and community engagement. P. 27-43. Colbeck, C.L., O’Meara, K. & Austin, A. (eds). (2008). Educating Integrated Professionals: Theory and Practice on Preparation for the Professoriate. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 113, 27-42.
Sandmann, L., Saltmarsh, J. & O’Meara, K. (2008) Creating Academic Homes: An Integrated Model for Advancing the Scholarship of Engagement. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 12(1), 47-63.
O’Meara, K. (2007). Stepping Up: How one faculty learning community influenced faculty members’ understanding and use of active learning methods and course design. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. 18(2), 97-118.
Bloomgarden, A. & O’Meara, K. (2007). Harmony or cacophony? Faculty role integration and community engagement. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 13(2), 5-18.
O’Meara, K., & Jaeger, A. (2007). Preparing future faculty for community engagement: History, barriers, facilitators, models and recommendations. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 11(4), 3-26.
O’Meara, K. A. (2007). Striving for what? Exploring the pursuit of prestige. In Smart J.D. (Ed), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 22 (pp. 121-179). New York, New York: Springer.
O’Meara, K. (2006). Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship in faculty reward systems: Have academic cultures really changed? (pp. 77-96). In J. Braxton (Ed.), Analyzing faculty work and rewards: Using Boyer’s four domains of scholarship. New Directions for Institutional Research, 129.
O’Meara, K. A., & Rice, R. E. (Eds.) (2005). Faculty priorities reconsidered: Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Meara, K. (2005). Principles of good practice: Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship in policy and practice. In K. A. O’Meara & R. E. Rice (Eds.), Faculty priorities reconsidered: Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship (pp. 290-302). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Meara, K. (2005). Effects of encouraging multiple forms of scholarship nationwide and across institutional types. In K. A. O’Meara & R. E. Rice (Eds.), Faculty priorities reconsidered: Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship (pp. 255-289). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Meara, K. & Rice, R. E. (2005). Introduction. In K. A. O’Meara & R. E. Rice (Eds.), Faculty priorities reconsidered: Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship (p. 1-16). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Meara, K. & Braskamp, L. (2005). Aligning faculty reward systems and development to promote faculty and student growth. National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Journal, 42(2), 223-240.
O’Meara, K. (2005). Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship in faculty reward systems: Does it make a difference? Research in Higher Education, 46(5), 479-510.
O’Meara, K. (2005). Encouraging multiple forms of scholarship in faculty reward systems: Influence on faculty work-life. Planning for Higher Education, 34(2), 43-53.
O’Meara, K. (2005).The Courage to be Experimental: How one faculty learning community influenced faculty teaching careers, understanding of how students learn and assessment. Journal of Faculty Development. 20(3), 153-160.
O’Meara, K. (2004). Reframing incentives and rewards for community service-learning and academic outreach. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 8(2), 201-220.
O’Meara, K. (2004). Beliefs about post-tenure review: The influence of autonomy, collegiality, career stage, and institutional context. The Journal of Higher Education, 75(2), 178-202.
O’Meara, K. (2003). Believing is seeing: The influence of beliefs and expectations on post-tenure review in one state system. Review of Higher Education, 27(1), 17-44.
O’Meara, K. (2002). Uncovering the values in faculty evaluation of service as scholarship. Review of Higher Education, 26(1), 57-80.
Academic Profession
Women in Higher Education
Ranking Systems
History of American Higher Education
-Service Learning and Community Engagement
-Organization and Administration
Program Chair, 2012 ASHE Conference: http://www.ashe.ws/?page=107
Program Chair, 2012 IARSLCE Conference: http://www.researchslce.org/
UM NSF Advance Grant: http://www.advance.umd.edu/
Associate Editor, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement: http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/index
Associate Editor, Journal of the Professoriate: http://www.brothersoftheacademy.org/journal.html
Eastern Region Campus Compact Meeting: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1003433