Mary Lou Higgerson

Mary Lou Higgerson is the recipient of eight teaching awards including being named Distinguished Teacher in 1997 at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is a seasoned academic administrator with more than thirty-five years of experience with service at both large, public doctoral granting and small private, liberal arts institutions, and has held administrative appointments at every level of the institution from department chair to system office. In 2005, she was named to the Board of Trustees at Elmhurst College.

Higgerson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas where she studied and conducted research in organizational communication. Her selection as an American Council on Education Fellow for 1986 to 1987 propelled her to move her consulting and research interests from the corporate world to higher education administration. Combining her knowledge of communication with her administrative experience, Higgerson’s focus in her writing, consulting, and training activities is on leadership communication as it supports effective leadership at all levels of higher education administration. In 2000, Kansas State University presented Higgerson with the Bill E. Cashin Distinguished Service Award for "Outstanding Service to the Academic Chairpersons Conference and the Study of Academic Administration."

Since 1990, she has taught on a variety of leadership communication topics for the American Council on Education in national and campus leadership seminars offered through the Center for Leadership Development.  Higgerson has authored Communication Skills for Department Chairs (Anker, 1996), coauthored Effective Leadership Communication: A Survival Guide for Department Chairs and Deans (Anker, 2007), coauthored The Administrative Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Administrative Performance and Personnel Decisions (Anker, 2002), and coauthored Complexities of Higher Education Administration: Case Studies and Issues (Anker, 1993). She worked with Irene Hecht and Walt Gmelch to write The Department Chair as Academic Leader (ACE/Oryx Press, 1999). She has co-produced training videos on communication strategies relevant for higher education administrators and has written articles that have appeared in such publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Journal of College and University Personnel Association, Continuing Higher Education Review, and The Department Chair.