Ellen Crowe, Ph.D., was named MCC-Maple Woods president in August 2024. “I look forward to serving you and serving with you as we continue to make Maple Woods the best of the Northland!” Crowe wrote in a message to the campus community.
By then, she was already a well-established Maple Woods leader — as interim president since August 2023 and before that as vice president for instruction and student services since 2018. As vice president, she was the chief academic officer and led strategic planning, dual enrollment and enrollment/retention initiatives.
Crowe has held progressively higher-level positions in higher education for 20-plus years. Two examples: vice president of academics at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois, and dean of career and technical education at Morton College in Cicero, Illinois.
She possesses extensive higher-ed experience in teaching, academic development and retention, strategic planning, personnel management, professional development, mentoring, entrepreneurship, crisis preparedness and community relations. Crowe has taught courses in special education, behavior management, teacher education, and leadership and curriculum development.
At MacMurray College in Illinois, she was awarded the Dewey Wilkins teaching award, the highest honor a faculty member can achieve. She has served as a regional director for the American Association for Women in Community Colleges.
Crowe earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, all from Saint Louis University.