LEVELING THE PLAYING
FIELD
Mary and Dale Whittaker met on the campus of Texas A&M, where she was preparing for a career teaching special needs students and he was studying engineering. In the years since, they have shared their lives and a unique lens on America’s classrooms. Mary’s lens gave her a view of the enormous challenges faced by special needs students, especially those with limited means. Dale has concentrated on leveling the playing field in higher education as a professor, an administrator and a change agent at some of America’s best-known public universities.
WE ARE PHILANTHROPISTS
With generous support of several initiatives, Mary and Dale Whittaker seek to open UCF’s doors still wider
For both of the Whittakers, the fact that family income, independent of ability, remains a predictor of college graduation is simply unacceptable. So UCF — an institution that seeks to be defined more by who it includes than who it excludes — was a perfect fit when Dale assumed the role of provost and executive vice president in 2014. The Whittakers’ professional commitments are bolstered by their philanthropic ones. They are generous donors to the DirectConnect to UCF program, which guarantees admission to students who earn two-year degrees from UCF’s partner colleges, and to first-generation student scholarships. Recently, the Whittakers made an additional commitment to UCF’s future downtown campus, a place that will further level the playing field when it opens its doors to thousands of students.
15 | DONORS
Although the Whittakers understand the power of their giving to help individual students, they also hope it will help others to see the America they see — one where motivation and opportunity are all you should need to pursue the American dream.