Dr. Mary Pat Seurkamp is a founding partner of MPK&D, a higher education consulting firm. She had a 42-year career in higher education culminating in serving as president of Notre Dame of Maryland University from 1997–2012 and was named president emerita when she retired. Under her leadership, NDMU saw extensive campus renewal with more than $100 million invested in an ambitious master facility plan. Academic program growth, including the addition of a School of Pharmacy, marked her tenure, along with healthy enrollments and a dramatic increase in philanthropic support. Mary Pat led Notre Dame through several strategic plans, always reaffirming the College’s central commitment to the education of women. She led NDMU to university status, expanding Notre Dame’s historical strengths in the liberal arts, education, business, and health care.
Mary Pat serves as senior advisor for the Council for Independent Colleges (CIC) New Presidents Program, and consults nationally on a broad spectrum of topics related to the presidency and higher education. She has served as a trusted advisor to presidents, vice-presidents, religious congregational leadership, and board leadership in the areas of strategic planning, leadership development, organizational assessment, religious sponsorship, institutional innovation, and compensation. With a commitment to working with mission-driven institutions, she has worked with private and public universities, including women’s colleges and universities and HBCUs. She serves on the Board of the Boston College Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education and on the Maryland Higher Education Commission and has presented at national programs for individuals aspiring to the presidency.
Mary Pat chaired the CIC Board from 2003 through 2005 and the Maryland Independent College and University Association Board from 2008–2011; she also served on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and as chair of the Maryland Hospital Association Board.
Dr. Seurkamp, a magna cum laude graduate of Webster University (’68) with a B.A. in psychology, holds a M.A. in counseling from Washington University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a graduate of Maryland Leadership ’99 and was recognized as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women, Circle of Excellence, by The Daily Record. She lives on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, with her husband, Bob.
