Frances Sweeney, PhD

Frances Sweeney '86, PhD

925-631-4443

Motivated by the art and skill of question, Frances Sweeney is energized by and committed to growth in life’s changing mosaic, for herself, her students, her colleagues, and entire institutional cultures. Frances has held various administrative roles, including Academic Vice Provost, Dean for the School of Liberal Arts, Acting Director of the Center for First Generation to College Students and Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness. A Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics, Frances completed her B.A. in Diversified Liberal Arts and Spanish from Saint Mary’s, her M.A. in Spanish from the Middlebury College (Vermont and Spain) and her doctorate from the University of Texas.

As Vice President for Mission, Frances collaborates across SMC to advance mission integration, pursuing the question, “what does it mean to be a liberal arts, Lasallian, Catholic university in the 21^st century?” Her answer, in part, has been to keep Saint Mary’s responsive and relevant as a Lasallian Catholic university, including multi-faceted internal and external Lasallian programming; creating a national summer institute of Lasallian diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; an SMC Religious Diversity committee; a US Lasallian Interfaith Consortium; and a comprehensive reframing of support structures for different affinity groups (Veterans, SDS, LGBT, inter-religious, and especially for SMC as an Hispanic Serving Institution).

Frances helped establish the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action (CILSA), a nationally known model of service and community-driven partnerships; the SMC Honors Program; growing the High Potential Program and achieving its first TRIO grant; helping SMC achieve HSI status; and founding and serving as the first chair of the endowed Cummins Institute for Catholic Thought, Culture, and Action. She served as the longtime chair of the President’s Athletic Oversight Committee prior to having a BOT Athletics Working Committee.

Frances now serves on the Board of the International Association of Lasalle Universities, chairs the U.S. Lasallian Mission Officers committee, and is on the higher ed planning of the Christian Brothers Conference national office. She is a faculty fellow for the AAC&U and Interfaith America summer institute, and a committee member of the Catholic Higher Education Mission Officers Network of ACCU. She also serves as a cátedra for CETYS Universidad, México and is on their Board of Trustees Humanities and Inclusion Commission.

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