When Nancy Shapiro Ph.D. ’84 first joined the University System of Maryland (USM) in 1997, the landscape of education was ripe for innovation.
“There was no PK-20, no P-16, none of that,” she recalled. Her mentor, then Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg, had a vision that education needed to be reimagined—not just for K-12 but across the entire pipeline leading into and including higher education. It was this bold approach that would form the foundation of Shapiro’s work at USM, where she sought to break down silos and bridge the gap between K-12 and higher education in a way that had never been done before. “The first thing I did was bring all of the education deans from across the state to the table so that we could establish a unified approach to teacher preparation,” she said. “We needed to know what everyone was doing, and we wanted to make sure we weren’t just meeting the bare minimum set by the State Department of Education. We needed to do more.”
This commitment to collaboration led to a historic partnership between USM and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), spearheaded by Langenberg and Nancy Grasmick, the state superintendent at the time. In an unprecedented move, Langenberg and Grasmick jointly defended their budgets before the General Assembly.
“[Langenberg] locked in that relationship,” Shapiro explained. “For the first time, we had higher education standing side-by-side with K-12 to defend public education funding. It was groundbreaking—people realized that when we collaborate, everyone wins.”
As associate vice chancellor for education and outreach at USM, Shapiro would go on to organize forums for the systemwide deans and directors of teacher education, making sure to also find opportunities to engage colleagues in MSDE and at private and two-year institutions. She was intentional about extending her work to every corner of the state to ensure that all students were getting the best teachers the state could provide.
“Because of the infrastructure Nancy provided, we had useful data, an understanding of political contexts and resources to promote collaboration,” said Professor Donna Wiseman, who served as dean of the University of Maryland College of Education from 2008 to 2017. “We were able to work together to solve problems and respond to issues with a single voice.”
She added, “I can honestly say that there is no way that Maryland’s teacher education network would be as solid and cohesive as it is if not for Nancy’s leadership and consistent oversight for the past three decades.”
Shapiro’s career journey has always been one of risk, innovation and exemplary leadership–qualities that the UMD College of Education Alumni Network Board recognized when it chose her to receive its 2024 Outstanding Alumni Award. At UMD in 1994, Shapiro became the first executive director of College Park Scholars, a living-learning program that offers first- and second-year students an immersive, interdisciplinary academic experience, with a unique opportunity to interact with professors outside the traditional classroom setting.
The impact was immediate. What started as a solution to fill empty residence halls and increase enrollment quickly evolved into one of the university’s most successful programs. College Park Scholars set a new standard for how UMD could foster academic and social growth, and decades later, it remains a highly sought-after program. Its success even garnered national attention, featuring Shapiro and her colleagues in the December 1997 issue of Washingtonian Magazine.
Shapiro and the teams she created and led had a proven track record of successfully building programs from scratch. She was initially tapped for College Park Scholars because of her work with UMD’s Professional Writing Program, where she collaboratively developed an innovative writing curriculum, drawing on her earlier experiences as a high school English teacher. The program is taught to more than 30,000 students each year.
While reflecting on her career and the impact she has made on education in Maryland, she said, “I’ve always loved getting students and teachers excited about teaching and learning. It’s been the best job in the business.”
Although Shapiro retired from USM in 2024, she remains deeply involved in the future of education. As a senior adviser for the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition, she is focused on ensuring that all college graduates are prepared for the responsibilities of citizenship. “Education is the last line of defense for democracy,” she said. “If we’re not teaching students how to engage with and change their world, then we’re failing them, our country and our world.”
