Rosalind Loring
Hall of Fame Class of 2013
Rosalind Loring was an early pioneer and advocate of adult and continuing education. She served as an advisor to federal agencies, a leader in professional associations, and a university administrator. Her contributions have spanned all roles: as a scholar through her books and articles, as a practitioner who developed programs for women and veterans, and as a policy maker who served as dean and provost.
Her most notable achievements were in the development and creation of continuing education options and resources for women when there were few. As an administrator, she continued to support programs for women and veterans. Her contributions were at the local (Adult Educators of Greater Los Angeles), national (President of Adult Education Association/USA, Board Member NUCEA, National Advisory Council on Extension and Continuing Education), and international (UNESCO, faculty member and Chairperson of Continuing Education Section at conference in Salzburg, Austria) levels.
In the late 1950s, UCLA engaged Loring to implement her ideas on improving the educational and professional status of women at a time when that was not an accepted practice. She is credited with developing one of the country’s first programs for women at UCLA in 1965. She then used her experience to create programs to raise the educational levels of veterans. While at UCLA, she helped establish the Vietnam Veterans Education Program, Continuing Education Programs for Women, the Educational Opportunities Center, and the Western Regional Center for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
She founded the Adult Educators of Greater Los Angeles and served as that group’s first Chairman. In 1976, President Gerald Ford appointed her to a three-year term on the National Advisory Council on Extension and Continuing Education. That same year, she was appointed to the Special Committee of Government Experts to Draft Recommendations on the Development of Adult Education, for UNESCO in Paris, France.
Over the years, Loring has been the recipient of numerous awards. A 1978 survey conducted by the Commission of Professors of Adult Education ranked Loring as one of 25 persons in the history of the nation who have contributed most to the field of adult education. In 1986, she was awarded the National University Continuing Education Association’s highest leadership award for her “unusual and extraordinary leadership.”
Between her innovative and pioneering efforts in adult education at a time when there were few female university administrators, her service on prestigious committees and associations and her impressive honors and awards, Loring has demonstrated her tremendous impact on the field of adult and continuing education.