SXU Campus Directory Photo of Kathleen McInerney, Ph.D. SXU website
Kathleen McInerney, Ph.D., professor in the Education Division at Saint Xavier University (SXU), passed away on Friday, Sept. 26.
McInerney’s passing was announced on Monday, Sept. 29, in an email to faculty and staff members from SXU President Keith Elder, Ph.D., MPH, MPA. “Saint Xavier University is deeply saddened by the death of long-serving Education Professor Kathleen McInerney,” he said. “McInerney was a devoted teacher and colleague whose contributions enriched our University in many ways.”
Some of McInerney’s accomplishments throughout her 16 years at SXU include building the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program, as well as running the English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement program.
Faculty members who knew McInerney say it was her humility, kindness, and her dedication to students and Mercy values, particularly social justice, that will shape her legacy here on campus.
“More than anything else, when I think of Kathleen in my experience with her, it was what she embodied about the Sisters’ of Mercy Mission that the University is founded on,” Associate Professor in and Interim Director of SXU’s Education Division Anthony DeCesare, Ph.D., said, remembering McInerney, a close colleague and friend to him. “And for her, the critical concerns of the Sisters in this sort of social justice framework were front and center of everything she did. I’ve been at Catholic universities my entire career–Jesuit, Vincentian, and now Sisters of Mercy, and I can’t think of a colleague who embodied that mission more than Kathleen did here at Saint Xavier.”
“She had a diplomatic way of being the ‘conscience’ of Education–calling out the administration and other leaders in society when new policies and changes threatened to diminish our programs’ ability to teach with justice and excellence,” SXU Associate Professor of English Angelo Bonadonna, Ph.D., said in a statement to the Xavierite. “The concern she raised was always softened and humanized by the warm smile she brought to every conversation.”
“She was such a strong advocate for students, always going above and beyond for them,” said Coordinator of Field Experiences in the Education Division Lydia O’Grady.
Faculty members who knew McInerney report feeling a tremendous sense of loss after McInerney’s passing. “We are devastated and had been looking forward to her return next semester. She was such a sweet soul,” said O’Grady, noting how McInerney was on a leave of absence during this Fall 2025 semester. “She once ran into me with my grandsons outside, and when I told them she was a ‘teacher’ here, one said he wanted to be a teacher. She took the time to share examples of all good things teachers offer students. He walked away saying he would become a teacher like her,” she recalled earlier.
DeCesare explains his experience dealing with the loss: “I’ve been in tears constantly–like, on the way to work, just thinking about what it means to work here without her. It’s a huge and profound loss that I just can’t get my head around yet.”
McInerney’s passing is the second in SXU’s Education Division within the last year, following the death of long-time SXU Professor Margaret “Meg” Carroll in December of 2024.
“This year we have lost two of the stalwarts of the Education program, Meg Carroll and Kathleen McInerney,” SXU Associate Professor of English Norman Boyer, Ph.D., stated. “They will be missed and will be hard to replace completely.”