If ever there was a job that needed doing, Dr. Mary Lawlor was the one raising her hand to do it.

During her career as a teacher and administrator, and throughout her nearly 15 years of retirement, Lawlor’s generous spirit and selfless sharing of her time and talents have earned her ACSA’s 2025 Robert E. Kelly Award for Outstanding Community Service, which is given each year to a retired individual who helps advance the high quality of public education through volunteer work.

“Dr. Lawlor has coached many administrators through the years because of her well-known reputation as a successful and caring administrator,” said Gloria McKearney, president of the ACSA Region 18 Retired Charter, of which Lawlor is a member. “Dr. Mary Lawlor is an example of a knowledgeable and compassionate educator who has dedicated her whole life to improving public education and educational leadership.”

Lawlor’s career in education didn’t begin until she moved out west. Lawlor was born in Wisconsin, and after earning a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management from University of Wisconsin in 1973, she followed her aunt and mother to California. When finding work became hard, she went back to school to earn her teaching credential from San Diego State University.

Lawlor started teaching in 1979 in the San Diego Unified School District. She was a high school English teacher who also volunteered for roles as the track and volleyball coach, yearbook advisor, cheer advisor, AVID coordinator and department chair.

“I was the jack of all trades,” she said. “For anything they wanted done, I volunteered.”

She said those experiences helped deepen and broaden her knowledge for when she became an administrator. Lawlor would serve as a summer school principal, vice principal and principal in San Diego USD. As a bilingual certified instructor, Lawlor is particularly proud of being the founding principal of the Language Academy, a K-8 French and Spanish language immersion magnet school. In 2002, she went to Sweetwater Union High School District, where she was a site leader until her retirement on Jan. 1, 2011.

“I never was married or had kids, but I kept myself busy by getting more credentials and doing more work in schools in various capacities,” she said.

After retirement, she continued her professional growth by training to be a certified coach in the Coaching Leaders to Achieve Student Success (CLASS) program and becoming certified to supervise student teachers at National University.

She also used her extensive site-based knowledge to volunteer as the California visiting committee chairperson for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. From 2013-2019, she personally visited 26 public, private, charter and religious K-12 schools in Southern California and wrote reports recommending schools for accreditation. The three- to four-day visits to different communities were like “mini-vacations,” she said, and it was very rewarding to provide feedback on opportunities for school improvement.

“It’s a lot of work but it’s beneficial for the schools,” she said. “You know, they never overturned any decisions that we made, so I’ve always felt that we were fair in our evaluation and what we said in the recommendation.”

Using her talent for writng, Lawlor found another outlet for sharing her expertise with others as a frequent contributor to ACSA’s Region 18 retiree charter’s newsletter.

But her biggest writing project by far was her dissertation. It took her seven years to write, but she completed her doctorate in Leadership and Human Behavior from United States International University (now called Alliant International University) in 1999. Her research was on an ambitious but meaningful topic: group dynamics, specifically on trust between principals and teachers.

“That was significant to me because I know now how important it is to have trust,” she said, “and all of the things I used in my dissertation are still relevant: trust, collegiality, teacher’s sense of efficacy.”

Lawlor has also enjoyed the intellectual and professional enrichment she has received as a member of ACSA since 1988, which has given her the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with administrators up and down the state.

Lawlor has given back by serving as a leader within ACSA. She served as a charter president from 2007-2011. In retirement, she was an ACSA Region 18 Retired Charter President from 2014-18 and began serving as Region 18’s Lead Ambassador in 2017. In this role, she is responsible for welcoming new ACSA members and thanking continuing members. Her enthusiastic endorsement of ACSA has helped hundreds of educational leaders to deepen their connection to the association and leverage their membership to achieve their leadership goals.

“Anything that I can do, I volunteer to do to help ACSA,” Lawlor said. “I’m a proud member.”

Lawlor has also given back extensively to her alma mater, San Diego State University. An Aztec for Life member of the university’s alumni association, she participated in the College of Education’s Improving Futures Fund grant committee, which awards faculty members start-up money for innovative projects, and hosted Kappan Awards Night to recognize outstanding individuals and groups.

More recently, Lawlor established an endowed scholarship awarded to undergraduate students in the College of Education majoring in Leadership Studies. She named it in honor of her aunt, Marylinn J. Metzke, who influenced her and her family to move out to California.

“My aunt was my mentor,” Lawlor said. “She always encouraged us to do what we wanted to do, and be brave and get an education, and travel.”

Although her aunt never pursued higher education, the scholarship Lawlor created in her name will help others pursuing their educational goals in perpetuity. As a related symbol of success and achievement, Lawlor also named a staircase at San Diego State’s Lamden Hall after her aunt.

In addition, Lawlor also supports community organizations through donations to the San Diego Humane Society, Computers 2 SD Kids, San Diego Library Foundation, KPBS and others.

A lifelong learner, Lawlor continues to take Spanish lessons weekly to maintain her fluency and expand her vocabulary. Although she currently uses a wheelchair, she is able to attend functions like ACSA Region 18 retiree luncheons using a door-to-door transportation service.

Health issues have kept her from participating in as many volunteer activities as she would like to, but she hopes to regain her mobility.

“It’s been hard for me. However, I’m used to doing what I can with what I have,” Lawlor said. “I can still write, and I can still go to meetings. I can still give my input and I can still influence people, because I think it’s important to help influence decisions and what’s being done.”