Dr. Molly O’Keefe Joins CSM as Associate Vice President of Strategy

The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) announces that Dr. Molly O’Keefe will join the college Dec. 2 as its new associate vice president of Strategy. In this senior leadership role, O’Keefe will be responsible for guiding the implementation of CSM’s new 2024-2029 Strategic Plan: “Built for Success” -- a plan that is the result of extensive community engagement and reflects CSM’s dedication to expanding access, enhancing momentum, and fostering social and economic mobility for students.

“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. O’Keefe to our CSM community as the inaugural associate vice president of Strategy,” said CSM President Dr. Yolanda Wilson. “Her deep knowledge of, and experience in, strategic planning, data analytics, and project management will be invaluable in our movement toward scaled and sustainable student success work, and I know that she will be an excellent addition to our leadership team.”

O'Keefe, who will report directly to Wilson, comes to CSM with nearly 25 years of experience in leveraging comprehensive approaches to data and information use for planning and decision-making in higher education. Most recently serving as the senior associate dean for Strategy and Decision Support at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), she has dedicated her career, applied practice, teaching, and research to areas such as institutional research, data and analytics, and strategic planning and evaluation.

“I am very excited to join CSM at this intersection of who it has been and who it will be in the future,” said O’Keefe. “Arriving as the new strategic plan is launched is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate around the intentional support and enhancement of student access, momentum, and mobility. Higher education is both a public and personal good that can create opportunities, foster stability and growth, and enhance lives, and I look forward to my new Hawk life with its students, colleagues, and community."

Prior to EVMS, she was the assistant dean of Strategic Analytics and Business Intelligence at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Gillings Global School of Public Health. From large-scale project management work in accreditation and strategic planning to proposing operational improvements in effectiveness and efficiency, she has led initiatives to understand higher education context and trends, designed relevant processes and policies for sustainable improvement efforts, created and improved data and reporting infrastructure, and helped colleagues interpret information analytically and use the results to drive impact-focused change. O'Keefe is also a coach and evaluator with Achieving the Dream, a role that guided her interest in and move to the community college realm, having seen the impact and promise of student-centered, equity-based approaches to increase student success and mobility.

O'Keefe holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Administration with a focus in policy, planning, and analysis from the College of William and Mary, as well as a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Sociology from Illinois State University. She has served several research, practice, and advisory roles with organizations including EDUCAUSE, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).