Benedictine Hosts Former Maryland Representative, Woodrow Wilson Fellow

Benedictine University will host former U.S. Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) to lead a series of workshops and meetings with students and faculty as part of the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program.

Morella was the first female member of the Maryland General Assembly to be elected to the U.S. Congress, where she represented Maryland’s 8th District from 1987 to 2003. During her 16 years in the House of Representatives, Morella was known as one of the few remaining moderate Republicans and developed a reputation as an advocate for women, children and families.

She was a member of the House Committee on Science and chair of the Subcommittee on Technology, and led efforts to promote economic growth through free trade, advocating for liberal trade rules and heightened international engagement.

Morella will be at Benedictine October 21-26 to visit classes, work with student government and meet with administrators. She will give a lecture “Civility in Congress and in Society: Is it Achievable?” that is open to the public at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 25 in Birck Hall, Room 112 (Tellabs Lecture Hall).

In July 2003, former President George W. Bush appointed Morella as the U.S. representative to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international trade organization based in Paris.

As an ambassador to the OECD, she was a key participant in negotiations and agreements to include five potential country members: Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia. She also advanced the program to engage the rapidly developing countries of Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa as well as the Southeast Asia region.                                                       

Morella was inducted into Maryland’s Women’s Hall of Fame and has received outstanding public service awards from the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award. She serves on the boards of the Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange, the Institute for Representative Government, the Cafritz Foundation and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs.

In 2009, she was appointed Ambassador in Residence at the American University School of Public Affairs where she teaches “Women, Politics and Public Policy.”

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program, which is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in Washington, D.C., brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other professionals to campuses across the United States for a week-long residential program of classes, seminars, workshops, lectures and informal discussions.

For more information about the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program, visit www.cic.edu/visitingfellows.           

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Benedictine University is an independent Roman Catholic institution located in Lisle, Illinois just 25 miles west of Chicago. Founded in 1887, Benedictine provides 56 undergraduate majors, 15 graduate and four doctorate programs. Benedictine University is ranked No.1 among the country’s fastest-growing campuses between 2000-2010 in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s list of private nonprofit research institutions, and Forbes magazine named Benedictine among “America’s Top Colleges” for the second consecutive year in 2012. Benedictine University’s Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) program is listed by Crain’s Chicago Business as the fifth largest in the Chicago area in 2012.