THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Mary Ellen Verheyden-Hillard

October 5, 1925 – April 29, 2015

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that the school can continue to exclude girls is a disgrace, founded on a wretched doctrine. That idea wasn’t any good for racial segregation, and it isn’t any good for sexual segregation.” – Mary Ellen Verheyden-Hillard, NOW, about a 2-1 ruling of the US Third Court of Appeals that a Philadelphia school for gifted boys could continue to exclude academically superior girls, April 21, 1977

Author, Educator and Activist. The first national coordinator of the National Organization for Women’s Education Task Force. The first woman to earn a master’s degree in women’s studies at George Washington University. Led a national program to enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and was the founder of the Equity Institute in Bethesda, Md. Led The Sex Equality in Guidance Opportunities Project, a national federal training program that provided workshops and educational programming related to Title IX, a federal law prohibiting discrimination in education from 1974–1976. Established the American Women in Science series, a set of biographies highlighting accomplished female scientists. Served on the D.C. Commission for Women. 

Photo. Mary Ellen Verheyden, 1950