Meet the MC Online Dean

Shinta Hernandez, Ph.D. is the Dean of MC Online and Academic Support at Montgomery College (MC), providing leadership in online education, open education, and the Digital Learning Center. From the time she started at MC in January 2007, she has helped to advance work in open education and open pedagogy, social justice and equity, inclusive curriculum, faculty professional development, international collaborations, online education, and the social science disciplines.

Previously, Dr. Hernandez served as the department chair of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice and professor of sociology at MC. She also served on the leadership team of the Achieving the Dream (ATD) Student Success Network. She is the co-founder and co-developer of two MC faculty fellowships centered on online education and open education, including the global award-winning United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship, which has grown to 13 institutional partners across North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia. She also has experience in external leadership roles with the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER), Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), MarylandOnline Leadership Institute (MOLLI), and the Maryland Chief Officers of Online Learning (COOL).

Dr. Hernandez received her B.A. in Psychology from Brandeis University, M.P.P. in Social Policy from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland College Park. She was recently awarded the Diversity in Business Award by the Washington Business Journal (2024) and by Women We Admire as Top 50 Women Leaders in Maryland (2022). She was also awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advising from MC in 2017 and the Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) in 2018.