Catherine M. Kelleher Endowed Fellowship for International Security Studies

Catherine M. Kelleher was a nationally renowned scholar in international security policy, and long-time professor at the University of Maryland. Dr. Kelleher was a founding faculty member of the School of Public Policy, the founding director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, and the founding president of Women in International Security.  After serving as a Defense Department official in the Clinton administration and a Professor at the Naval War College, Dr. Kelleher return to spend the final years of her career teaching at the School of Public Policy as a College Park Professor.  

The Catherine M. Kelleher Fellowship for International Security Studies was established in 2018 to honor her legacy by supporting graduate students in the School of Public Policy who are studying international security policy, with a preference for students interested in cooperative approaches to reducing nuclear risks and addressing other security challenges.  The fellowship has been funded through annual donations and has supported six students to date

 After Catherine’s passing in 2023, family, friends, colleagues, and former students came together to raise $100,000 to establish an endowed fund to support the Kelleher Fellowship so that Catherine’s legacy and contributions to SPP and the international security field will be honored in perpetuity. We have recently met that benchmark and set up the endowed fund. We are now seeking contributions from Catherine’s vast network of students, colleagues, and friends to build the endowed fund to generate more money for a Kelleher fellowship each year. Through December, our goal is raise $10,000 on this platform. 

To help our continued fundraising efforts, a generous alumna and former student of Catherine's has offered a 1:1 match, up to $10,000, for all gifts given in December. Catherine’s legacy is defined by her passion for advancing international security policy, elevating women’s standing in government and academia, and helping individual colleagues, students, and friends. Your gift today will help have double the impact in our efforts to keep her legacy alive by supporting generations of Kelleher Fellows to come.

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Anybody who was lucky enough to have Catherine Kelleher as a professor, mentor, or friend will never forget her.   Catherine recruited Carola Weil (MPP, ’85) to the fledgling School of Public Affairs and changed the trajectory of her career:

 "Catherine Kelleher opened a new world of possibilities for me. I came to SPA planning to study immigration   and refugee policy, unclear what my actual career step might be.  Catherine Kelleher ended up taking me   under her wing, introducing me to the international security arena. She was a role model for young women    like myself, not only for how to hold one’s own in a (then predominantly) man’s world, but also the importance of focusing not on problems but solutions, and doing so collaboratively, even across divides. Catherine brought women like myself as well as male allies together to establish and grow Women In International Security (WIIS) to close the gender gap in international security and foreign policy around the world.”   

Catherine leveraged the knowledge and connections gained from serving in the Clinton administrations to help a second generation of SPP students prepare for professional leadership. When Major Ernesto Guerro (MPP, ’16) wanted to do a capstone project on “Assessing the Future of NATO-Russia Relations,” who better to advise him than somebody who had been the Secretary of Defense's Personal Representative in Europe and Defense Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Brussels, Belgium? He recalls, “she always made me bring my A game and I’m grateful to have learned from her.” After graduating, Ernesto attended Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training, then became an aircraft commander and reconnaissance pilot at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. About his upcoming two-year assignment in Tbilisi, Georgia, Ernesto says, “It’ll be really cool to be on the NATO-Russian frontier, especially considering Professor Kelleher’s guidance on my capstone project.”

"Catherine was a tireless mentor. In any conversation, she would help you understand theproblem you were working on, share unforgettable stories from her career, and give you courage and confidence as you needed it. I am forever grateful for her generous spirit and proud to see her legacy carry on through the Kelleher Fellowship." - Ben Loehrke, MPP '10

Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents. Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax deductible as allowed by law. Please see your tax advisor for details.