Maureen Dunne

Maureen Dunne, Ph.D. is a globally recognized education thought leader, public policy professional, neurodiversity expert, DEI advocate, and community college champion. She currently serves as Chair of College of DuPage, President of the ICCTA, Board member of ACCT, faculty affiliate with the billion-dollar Discovery Partners Institute associated with the University of Illinois system, and Senior Advisor for the LEGO Foundation’s $20M Accelerator Fund.

Dr. Dunne’s work has been featured in top-tier media, including Forbes, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, DiversityQ, NYTimes, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg, and she is a frequent keynote speaker, including Community College Day at the National Science Foundation, multiple Fortune 500 companies, the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit, and The Atlantic Festival alongside New York Times Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist, John Donvan.

As an elected official and education advocate, Dr. Dunne has leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels. She currently serves as Board Chair at College of DuPage (one of the largest single campus community colleges in the U.S.), as President of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (a statewide legislative advocacy and trustee education organization that represents 48 member colleges serving over 700,000 students), and as Board Director of the Association of Community College Trustees, where she helps guide policy and advocacy efforts affecting more than 12 million college students in the United States and beyond.

As ICCTA President, Dr. Dunne achieved a landmark milestone for neurodiversity advocates when the ICCTA became the first-ever statewide education association to pass a Neurodiversity Inclusion Resolution to guide public policy. The resolution is actively being adopted at colleges across the country.

Dr. Dunne also organizes Inclusive Coding academy events and introduced a novel transcript innovation – the first strength-based skills transcript. She is partnering with global publisher Wiley for two upcoming books on Neurodiversity Inclusion.

A former National Science Foundation Fellow, Kauffman Entrepreneur Fellow, Women 2.0 Founder to Watch, and AACC outstanding Alum, Dr. Dunne earned her doctorate degree in cognitive sciences from the University of Oxford, where she attended as the first ever community college graduate to be named a Rhodes Scholar.