About

Martha M. McCarthy, Chancellor's Professor, specializes in education law and policy and chairs the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University (IU). She has also served as Director of the High School Survey of Student Engagement, Director of the Indiana Education Policy Center, and Associate Dean of the Faculties at IU. At the beginning of her career, she was a public school teacher and was recognized by Teacher magazine as one of the nation's outstanding teachers of disadvantaged youth in 1968. She also was a central office administrator in Louisville, Kentucky. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, where she won the College of Education's Outstanding Dissertation Award (1974-75).

She has served as President of the Education Law Association (1984-85) and the University Council for Educational Administration (1985-86), and has served as Vice-President for Division A (Administration) of the American Educational Research Association (1992-94). Among awards, she has received the Research Competition Award from the American Association of School Administrators (1980), the President's Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education from the Indiana Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals (1988), a Distinguished Service Award from Pi Lambda Theta Education Honorary (1988), the first Contribution to Knowledge Award from the Indiana Association of School Leaders (1991); the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award for Distinguished Teaching and Research at IU (1991), the McGhehey Award for Contributions to School Law from the Education Law Association (1992), the IU Office for Women's Affairs' Distinguished Scholar Award (1993), an Outstanding Educator Award from Kappa Delta Pi Honorary Society (2001), the Living Legend Award from the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (2002), the Gorman Award for Creativity and Excellence in Teaching from the IU School of Education (2003), the Sylvia Bowman Award for Outstanding Teaching Related to American Civilization at IU (2004), and the Roald Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Council for Educational Administration (2004. She also was inducted into the University of Kentucky Alumni Hall of Fame for the College of Education (1990) and named an Alumna of Outstanding Achievement to celebrate the University of Florida's fiftieth anniversary of admitting female students (1997).

She has written 11 books and more than 250 articles or chapters and made numerous presentations regarding various aspects of students' and teachers' rights, church-state relations, curriculum censorship, equity issues, privatization of education, school reform efforts and student engagement, and characteristics of students and faculty in administrative preparation programs. She currently serves as a columnist for Educational Horizons and Education Update. She also has served on or currently serves on 12 editorial boards for professional journals pertaining to law, educational leadership, or educational research.