Breadcrumb
Mary Virnoche
Graduate Coordinator & Professor
Mary Virnoche was a first-generation college student and grew up in a small Wisconsin town on the shore of Lake Michigan. Her research, teaching, service, and scholarship Have been focused on supporting and celebrating campus and community diversity while building practices, policies, and programs that institutionalize that success. Mary is a mom, who parented two now adult sons who grew up attending campus events.
Areas of Interest
Inclusive student success in higher education; qualitative methods, applied sociology
- Ph.D. University of Colorado at Boulder, 1999
SOC 372 Proseminar, SOC 472 Graduate School Planning, SOC 410 Contemporary Theory, SOC 584 Qualitative Methods
Leadership in governance & policy making with an equity lens has been part of Mary's professional focus. She serves on the Academic Senate of the CSU. As part of her senate role, she also serves on the committee on Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion. Prior to state-wide senate, she was the Cal Poly Humboldt General Faculty President and Senate Chair after years of leadership in other campus senate roles.
Mary was a 19-20 California Education Policy Fellow collaborating with a cohort of 19 other PreK-Higher Education leaders from across public and private institutions and state government. She also served as a Women's Research and Educational Institute Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C. working on policy related to gender, work, and housing.