Building a Legacy: Maureen Flanagan '66 Gives Others a Foundation for Success
With more than 30 major building projects among her credits as owner of Express Design and Renovation LLC., Maureen Flanagan’s creativity takes many shapes. In a one-woman act of urban renewal, she has transformed whole neighborhoods, including her own, buying and renovating three houses on her street. Her own mid-century contemporary dwelling features floor-to-ceiling glass windows inspired by Eero Saarinen’s design of Dulles International Airport.
Flanagan was just 17 years old when she came to UMass Amherst on full scholarship. At the time, Amherst was the farthest from home the Quincy, Massachusetts, native had ever traveled. She has gone on to travel the world, rising to the top in two careers before embarking on one in home renovation. “I envision designs and watch them become beautiful structures,” she says.
She knows that even a fair share of smarts and a lot of hard work does not guarantee success. Flanagan has established an endowment at UMass Amherst to help aspiring young women who, need financial help to attend college.
“If I hadn’t gone to UMass, none of the other things in my life would have been possible,” she said. As a member of the UMass Amherst Foundation Board, she co-chairs the Women of UMass Amherst initiative to enlist the support of other successful women professionals—especially those who live in and around Washington.
After graduating from UMass Amherst with an English degree, Flanagan earned her master’s and doctorate in medieval languages and literature from the University of Wisconsin. She taught at the University of Maryland through the mid-1970s.
Then the business world beckoned. She earned a master’s in public administration and management and was among the first to enter a management development program at AT&T aimed at fast-tracking women and minorities. She has also held executive management positions at IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., and Unisys.After working for Digital in Washington on international trade policy, she went to Japan as corporate director of business development in Asia. In 1992, she traveled
as part of the first American business delegation to visit Vietnam after the war there. Unisys hired her away from Digital to establish its Vietnam office.
Vietnam was transformational for Flanagan, who had sympathized with war protesters at the University of Wisconsin but stayed on the sidelines.
“The Vietnamese admired American technology, and we had embargoed it for over 20 years,” she said. “Bringing technology to Vietnam was a form of reparation for the damage we did in the war. It was really the only job I had in business that was also a personal mission.”
Working abroad helped shape Flanagan’s belief that experiencing foreign cultures is a necessary part of education. She recently reworked the language in her endowment at UMass Amherst to support students seeking opportunities to broaden their horizons and envision new roles for themselves, whether through research, study abroad, internships or other initiatives.
