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Barbara A. Marinak, Ph.D., is proud to serve as Mount’s Chief Academic Officer. Barb joined the Mount’s faculty in 2011, progressing from associate professor to chair of the Education Department to professor to dean in 2017. Barb earned a B.A. from Temple University, and an M.Ed. from Penn State. In 1995 she was awarded a fellowship at the University of Maryland, College Park where she earned a Ph.D. in literacy. Her dissertation was awarded the 2005 J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy Dissertation Award from the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers.
Prior to joining the faculty at Mount St. Mary’s, Barb spent more than two decades in public education. She held a variety of leadership positions including reading supervisor, elementary curriculum supervisor, and acting superintendent. Barb co-chaired the national Response to Intervention (RTI) Task Force of the International Literacy Association and served on the National Joint Commission on Learning Disabilities.
Barb’s scholarship on literacy and motivation is nationally recognized and has improved the lives of countless young people by contributing data-driven insights and approaches to motivation intervention and reading instruction. She is the co-author of No More Reading Junk and Maximizing Motivation for Literacy Learning: Grades K-6 and co-editor of Essential Readings on Motivation. Her work can be found in The Reading Teacher, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Journal of Educational Research, Literacy Research and Instruction, and Young Children.
Barb has served the Mount in a variety of leadership endeavors including having worked on two Middle States reaccreditations, guided the Mount’s strategic use of instructional technologies during the pandemic, and chaired numerous academic committees. She successfully navigated the program approval process via the Maryland Higher Education Commission, bringing new and innovative programs to the university. She and the team from the School of Education have been successful in acquiring over $3 million in state and federal grants over the past three years. She received Mount St. Mary’s Outstanding Merit Award three times, and her teaching and research have earned numerous national honors including the 2016 A.B. Herr Award presented by the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers. The Herr Award recognizes a professional educator who has made outstanding contributions to the field of reading.