President McGuire Named Leader of the Year
The Greater Washington Board of Trade selected Trinity President Patricia McGuire as the 2007 Leader of the Year for her outstanding contributions to the Washington region’s business community. Each year, the Board of Trade honors one person who is an exemplary leader in the business community with this distinguished award; this annual award recognizes extraordinary service by an individual to the business and community interests of greater Washington. President McGuire is the first university president to be honored with this award, and is one of only six women to be honored since the first award was presented in 1947. President McGuire will be saluted at a black-tie dinner on May 15, 2007.
In her 18th year as president of Trinity, President McGuire’s record of business achievements are significant: she has doubled the institution’s enrollment; managed the growth of an operating budget from $9.4 million to $22 million; completed the institution’s first successful capital campaign, raising more than $12 million from alumnae, corporations and foundations; more than tripled the institution’s charitable support; secured the institution’s first bond rating; managed the growth of assets from $12 million to $55 million; and constructed a $20-million athletic facility that serves the campus community and the Washington community.
More significantly, President McGuire has focused Trinity’s mission on meeting the educational needs of the city. Trinity enrolls more D.C. residents than any other private university in the city; 45% of the students are D.C. residents. Under her leadership, President McGuire is opening the doors to new populations of women, once largely excluded from higher education, who are discovering the empowerment of a women’s college: 85% of Trinity’s students are African American or Latina.
President McGuire’s achievements extend far beyond Trinity’s campus and extend into the business community, the Washington region and the national higher education arena. In the business arena, President McGuire is an active leader on the Board of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and recently chaired the national search for a new CEO. She serves on the boards of the Washington Hospital Center and UNIFI, a major national financial services company.
In the Washington community and education arena, she serves on the boards of the Washington Metropolitan Consortium of Universities, Goodwill of Washington and the Joint Military Intelligence College, and recently completed her term on the board of the Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation. She serves on committees of the American Council on Education, the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, and other civic and educational organizations. In 2000, she was appointed by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and the D.C. Financial Control Board to a special term on the Education Advisory Committee overseeing the D.C. Public Schools. In 2006, she was appointed by the American Red Cross Board of Governors to serve on a 7-member Independent Governance Advisory Panel.
President McGuire has been widely recognized for her leadership and community contributions. Among her other awards, President McGuire was featured in Washingtonian magazine in 2006 as one of Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women and in 1993, Washingtonian magazine named her “Washingtonian of the Year.” She received the “>Women Who Mean Business” award from the Washington Business Journal in 2006. She holds honorary degrees from the College of New Rochelle, College of St. Elizabeth, Wells College and Georgetown University, where she earned a law degree. In 2007, she is being inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame Society.
Prior to her tenure at Trinity, President McGuire was Assistant Dean for Development and External Affairs for Georgetown University Law Center and adjunct professor of law teaching courses in tax exempt organizations; project director for Georgetown’s D.C. Street Law Project, and legal affairs commentator for the award-winning CBS children’s newsmagazine “30 Minutes” and the Fox Television program “Panorama” in Washington.