Dr. Rosemary Papa is the Executive Director and Founder of Educational Leaders Without Borders and is Emeritus Professor and Del and Jewel Lewis Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University. Dr. Papa has published 33 books, 100+ academic articles in the areas of leadership, artificial intelligence, sustainability, educational policy, social justice, women and girls, school violence, and technology for school leaders, teachers and faculty in higher education. Recent published books include, authored or co-authored) Artificial Intelligence Changing the Arc of Education (2024), Global Progressive Leadership for Peace (2024), Recipes to Combat the ISMS Volumes 1 and 2, co-Editor (2022), Roads to Sustainability Practices, co-Editor (2022), Senior Editor-in-Chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Administration (2021-present), Artificial Intelligence, Human Agency and the Educational Leader, co-Editor (2021), Editor-in-Chief, Springer Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education (2020), and School Violence in International Contexts – Perspectives from Educational Leaders Without Borders (2019).

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She has served as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, in the California State University System, Vice President for Sylvan Learning, Professor and Faculty Director of a University-based Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Sacramento. She has founded three joint doctoral programs and has served as a Principal/Chief School Administrator for two districts in Nebraska.

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Dr. Papa received her doctoral degree in Educational Administration, Curriculum, and Instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1983. Most recently she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of West Attica, Athens, Greece, 2022, for her international academic leadership. In 2021, she was the recipient of the ICPEL Creighton Publishing Award from the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership. In 2015 she was the recipient of the AERA 2015 Willystine Goodsell Award, Women in Education SIG and gave the keynote address at AERA 2016,

Washington, D.C. for her research on women and girls. In 2012 she was the recipient of the Arizona School Administrators Outstanding Higher Education Administrator of the Year Award, and in 2003 the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership awarded her the Living Legend Award.

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In terms of recent voluntary activity, she founded the Heart Gallery of Sacramento, in the 2000’s, working with older children to find their forever home. Currently, she is a volunteer for Friends of the Library, Laguna Niguel and serves as Treasurer and Board Member for Pacific Island Village 1, Laguna Niguel.