Page 24 - BusinessWest July 20, 2020

collective passions and many of the initiatives that have marked the latter stages of her career.
These include women’s education, technol- ogy and technology-assisted learning, entrepre- neurship, and innovation.
“This opportunity is a perfect fit and really the culmination of all my professional work,” she explained. “I’ve had the opportunity to lead
“Many schools don’t have an online presence at all, and so imagine their consternation when faced with this pandemic. It’s interesting that other liberal- arts colleges are reaching out to us and looking to us as being able to provide that kind of education.”
a women’s college, so I understand the value of a women’s education. But another part of my background involves adaptive learning and the power of online education to really bring out
the best of everyone in terms of mastering the subject matter and ensuring that everyone has a voice. I’ve also led a software company and been an entrepreneur. This opportunity brings all that together, and that’s why it’s a perfect fit.”
A quick recap of her career to date will explain why she said that.
We start at Shaw’s, where Doran, in addi- tion to her work as general counsel, oversaw the
company’s portfolio of mergers and acquisitions, which included the acquisition of Star Market Inc.
Later, at Leslie, which she also served as gen- eral counsel, she came to that realization that higher education was a passion, one that led her to pursue and then garner the role of president of American College of Education, an online doctoral institution serving more than 3,500 students.
From there, while serving as an entrepreneur in residence at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., she served as the CEO of Castle Point Learning Systems, a Stevens Institute- supported educational technology startup that had developed an instructional framework for calculus, enabling students and teachers to develop a more robust foundation for higher- level mathematics.
Concurrently, she took a position as National Policy director for the New England Board of Higher Education, where, among other respon- sibilities, she created and implemented an inno- vative initiative for multi-state collaboration to increase educational attainment and access for students through online, hybrid, and distance education.
Her career then took another intriguing turn when she was appointed president of Salem Academy and College in North Carolina, the country’s oldest women’s college, founded in 1772. There, she put the school on firm financial footing, developed a strategic plan, and initi- ated several new programs, including an entre- preneurial makerspace in downtown Winston- Salem where students could work directly with the city’s innovation ecosystem.
As noted earlier, while education has become her career, she calls on her background in law on an almost daily basis, and finds that the two pro- fessions coexist effectively.
“One of the great roles of lawyers is to edu- cate,” she explained. “It’s to educate clients, to educate themselves, to mediate, to bring people together, to critically analyze the data and syn- thesize the data, and communicate. Lawyers are problem solvers, except for the high-profile ones, which are litigators; most lawyers are solv- ing problems.”
When a search firm called last year to
gauge her interest in the Bay Path position, she responded enthusiastically, and for the reasons — and passions — mentioned earlier.
“I was familiar with the pioneering aspects
of Bay Path — it was one of the first institutions to immerse themselves in the online education experience and understand what that could pro- vide for our students,” she explained, adding, again, that she viewed this opportunity as the culmination of all the career work that had come before it.
Since arriving on campus late last month, Doran, while working with staff on the reopen- ing plan, has also been trying to meet with local leaders and the campus community alike — in COVID-mandated ways, especially phone calls and Zoom meetings.
It’s not the same as meeting people in per- son, but it’s been effective in that she’s getting to know and better understand the community the school serves. And this work continues with an
Bay Path
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