Mary E. Walsh, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of City Connects and the Daniel Kearns Professor of Urban Education and Innovative Leadership at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. She directs the Boston College Center for Optimized Student Support, a research center studying interventions that enhance the academic and healthy development of youth.

Dr. Walsh has published and presented widely in the area of school-community supports for schoolchildren and their families. Two of her books are Children, Health and Learning and Meeting at the Hyphen: Schools-Universities-Communities-Professions in Collaboration for Student Achievement and Well-Being (co-authored with M. Brabeck).