Eleanor Hess McMahon '50 Mother Xavier Award 1971        Eleanor majored in Business Administration and Economics. She received an M.A. from Brown University in Educational Measurement and Economics (1954) and an Ed.D. from Harvard University (1967). She has received ten honorary degrees, including one from CSE (1976). Eleanor worked as a teacher and statistician in the Pawtucket (RI) School Department (1950-63). She was Director and Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Salve Regina College (1963-65). She held several professorial and administrative appointments at Rhode Island College, including terms as Dean of Educational Studies, Distinguished Professor, and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. From 1982-89 Eleanor was Rhode Island's Commissioner of Higher Education, while remaining a Distinguished Professor at Rhode Island College. From 1990- 93 she was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, and from 1989 to the present she has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brown University. Eleanor has written numerous scholarly publications on educational issues, and she has been an officer in many professional and community-service associations. She was elected to the Rhode Island Hall of Fame in 1986. Eleanor received the first Distinguished Alumna Award from CSE in 1997, and she received the Mother Xavier Award in 1971. "CSE provided balance, order, and direction to my life, in concert with a vision of God." Gleason, Sister Mary Ellen, S.C., Joyce, Sister Ellen, S.C., and Sirgiovanni, George. Lives of Achievement and Service: Biographical Statements of Distinguished College of Saint Elizabeth Alumnae. Morristown, New Jersey: College of Saint Elizabeth 1999.