Dr. Gilliland holds a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and systems ecology from the University of Florida, an M.A. in geophysics from Rice University, and an A.B. in geology and mathematics.
Selected Professional Achievements
Dr. Gilliland is on the Board of Directors and is chairman of the Compensation and Development Committee for Black & Veatch Corporation, an international engineering firm that designs and builds infrastructure in energy, water, telecommunications and government services. Revenues for this employee-owned company were $2.6 billion in 2011.
Until recently, she was a member of the newly formed Board of Directors for University of Arizona Health Network, a 501c3 organization which includes the two hospitals affiliated with the University of Arizona Medical Center and University Physicians Healthcare, the practice plan of the faculty physicians at the UA College of Medicine. The network includes about 6,000 employees.
In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Dr. Gilliland to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), a panel of 25 leaders from business and academia charged to advise the White House on science and technology issues. Dr. Gilliland served on the PCAST subcommittees on the Science and Technology Workforce, Nanotechnology, Federal R&D priorities, Electric Power Transmission, Energy Alternatives, and Personalized Medicine.
The Policy Studies Organization of the American Political Science Association awarded her the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for top public policy practitioner of the year in 2002.
She was named a Fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1985, and she has received numerous business and civic awards over her forty year career.
Experience
With the exception of board service and volunteer activities, Dr. Gilliland is retired.
From 2009-2012, she was Vice President of Research Corporation for Science Advancement (rcsa.org), a science foundation that supports early career scientists in the physical sciences who are engaged in highly innovative research.
From 2000-2005 Dr. Gilliland was Vhancellor/CEO of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). As chancellor, she was responsible for a $300 million budget, 3,000 faculty and staff, and 14,000 students in 11 academic programs, including Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Dentistry, Law, Business, Engineering, Education, Music and Dance, Biological Sciences, and Arts and Sciences. While at UMKC, Dr. Gilliland led a capital campaign that raised over $200 million.
Prior to being appointed as chancellor at UMKC, Dr. Gilliland served as provost at Tulane University in New Orleans and vice president and vice provost at the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she directed the Center for Infrastructure Research in the College of Engineering.
In addition to her academic administrative career, Dr. Gilliland has been a professor at UMKC, Tulane, UA, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and University of Oklahoma-Norman.
She has served on numerous federal and state boards and advisory panels, including the National Academy of Sciences committees on energy and new technology. She was appointed by Governor Robert Kerrey to the Nebraska Power Review Board and by Comptroller General of the U.S. Charles Bowser to the Research and Education Advisory Panel to the U.S. General Accounting Office.
Publications
Dr. Gilliland has published more than 30 books and papers on higher education, leadership, ecology, geology and environmental technologies. Two of her publications were selected as best papers of the year, one by the Journal of Mathematical Geology and the other by the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
Selected Examples of Publications:
- Gilliland, M.W. and A.A. Tynan, Transforming Higher Education: Overcoming the Barrier to Better Schooling, Solutions, Nov-Dec 2012, p51-61.
- Gilliland, M. and R. Wiener, Scialog (Science Dialog): A Methodology for Accelerating Breakthroughs for Solving Complex World Issues, Interface Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Winter 2012, p. 47-48
- Gilliland, M. “Presidential leadership for the public good”. In Adriana Kezar, Tony Chambers, and John Burkhardt (Eds.), Higher Education for the Public Good: Emerging Voices from a National Movement. Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco, 2005.
- Gilliland, M.W., “Leading a Public University: Lessons Learned in Choosing the Possibility of Quantum Results rather than Incremental Improvement” Public Administration Review, vol. 64, no. 3, May/June 2004, p. 372-377
- Gilliland, M.W., “A Conceptual Framework for Environmental Protection,” Environmental Management, vol. 8, no. 6, p. 463-472, 1984.
- Gilliland, M.W. (ed.) Energy Analysis: A New Public Policy Tool, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, p. 110, 1978.
- Kash, D.E., M.D. Devine, J.B. Freim, M.W. Gilliland, R.W. Rycroft, and T.J. Wilbanks, Our Energy Future, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, p. 482, 1976.
- Gilliland, M.W., “A Geochemical Model for Evaluating Theories on the Genesis of Florida’s Sedimentary Phosphate Deposits,” Journal of Mathematical Geology, vol. 8, no. 3, p. 219-242, 1976. (This paper was judged best paper in volume 8 or the Journal of Mathematical Geology for 1976.)
- Gilliland, M.W., “Energy Analysis and Public Policy,” Science, vol. 189, p. 1051-1056, 1975.
