Grace De Oro

Biography

Grace started her higher education career in 2014 as a Resident Assistant at St.  Mary’s College of Maryland. After graduating, she pursued her Masters in Public Policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. While a graduate student, Grace worked in the Division of Student Affairs supporting transfer, commuter, adult learner, and veteran students. Grace’s passion for student advocacy and fostering an overall holistic feeling of belonging have been at the center of her work in higher education for many years. 

As a first-generation college student and a child of a low-income, one-parent household, attending college was a must. She wanted to carve out a new path and future for herself and her family but was still determining how that would happen. Through her work experience in higher education while also pursuing her degrees, she found a passion for student leadership, advocacy, and support for students like herself. Her experience as a De Sousa Brent Scholar has had a lasting impact on her college experience and as a citizen of the world.

Currently, Grace is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, on the Public Management track in the School of Public Policy. Grace’s dissertation focuses on nonprofit resilience through an organizational management lens. Currently, she is working on a case study about emergency management nonprofits’ experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Grace is an avid animal lover who shares several farm animals with her mother at their family’s hobby farm in Woodbine, Maryland. She is looking forward to returning back to Southern Maryland and living on the water.