Dear UMBC Community,
It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Renique T. Kersh as the next vice president for Student Affairs at UMBC. Renique will join us from Simmons University in Boston, where she currently serves as vice president for student engagement, success, and diversity and a professor of practice in public health.
Sincerely,
President Valerie Sheares Ashby
It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Renique T. Kersh as the next vice president for Student Affairs at UMBC. Renique will join us from Simmons University in Boston, where she currently serves as vice president for student engagement, success, and diversity and a professor of practice in public health.
Renique will bring to UMBC deep and broad expertise in student affairs and student development, as well as exceptional leadership capacities and a richness of experience in higher education that spans student engagement and academic affairs. This will be a homecoming for Renique, who began her career at UMBC two decades ago as a community director in the Office of Residential Life. I am thrilled that Renique accepted my invitation to return to UMBC to lead the Division of Student Affairs and collaborate with us in envisioning and creating a future that enhances the experience for all of our students -- graduate and undergraduate, degree and non-degree, domestic and international, first-time and transfer, residential and commuter. She joins UMBC at an exciting and transformational time, and I know we will benefit greatly from her strategic leadership and partnership.
In her role at Simmons, Renique leads a division of more than 70 staff members in areas including residential life, student support, leadership and engagement, spiritual life, the health center, counseling center, and athletics and recreation. She is a strong partner with academic affairs, and she recently led the development of a new Division of Student Engagement, Success, and Diversity that integrates student-facing units in academic affairs with student affairs and diversity, equity, and inclusion teams. Renique has significant experience in strategic planning, both at the divisional and institutional level. She also is a highly effective collaborator and champion for student support, having secured significant foundation and private philanthropic support to launch programs in student leadership development, mental health and suicide prevention, and other health and wellness initiatives.
Prior to Simmons, Renique served for several years in the Office of the Provost at Northern Illinois University, first as associate vice provost for engaged learning and then as associate vice provost for student engagement and success. In those roles, she provided leadership and strategic vision on initiatives to increase student retention, persistence, and completion and on efforts to ensure a high-quality student experience and high-impact practice initiatives for engaged learning campus-wide. She previously served in leadership roles at North Central College in Naperville, IL; University of Missouri-Kansas City; University of Illinois; and University of Maryland, College Park. Her list of accomplishments at these institutions is long, as are the lists of courses she has developed and taught and papers she has published in the fields of public health, leadership, and higher education.
Renique was recently selected as a 2023-24 Fulbright Scholar in the U.S.-Germany International Education Administrators Program. As a Fulbright Scholar, she will have an opportunity to join a learning community of other higher education leaders through a two-week experience in Berlin, where they will learn about the German higher education system and identify opportunities for partnerships and collaboration. Renique earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Oakland University in Rochester, MI; a master's degree in education from the University of Maryland, College Park; and a Ph.D. in community health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
It was UMBC's long-held commitment to inclusive excellence that drew Renique to this role. That fact, combined with her experience and expertise, inspires in me both great confidence in her appointment and genuine excitement for the part that she will play in our work to create UMBC's future.
My sincere thanks to the members of the search committee and Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Katharine Cole, who served as chair of the committee, as well as to all who participated in this incredibly important search.
Renique will begin in the role on August 15. Please join me in extending to her a very warm, UMBC welcome.
Sincerely,
President Valerie Sheares Ashby