Dean Julie Ross of UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology, has been named to the Executive Committee of the Global Engineering Dean’s Council. She will serve a three-year term on the committee, and will work closely with engineering deans from around the world to advance engineering education, research, and service globally.

In her role on the council, Dean Ross will attend the annual conference of the GEDC in Seoul, Korea in early November.

UMBC’s engineering and IT programs and leaders have increasingly received national and international recognition, and become major players when it comes to innovating engineering and IT education, both in universities and in K-12.

In 2015, Renetta Tull, associate vice provost for graduate student development and postdoctoral affairs, was named one of just three global finalists for the prestigious GEDC Airbus Diversity Award, in recognition of her work to promote inclusion and diversity in STEM fields. The honor focused on her leadership in the PROMISE Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, which works to increase the number of future engineering faculty from underrepresented groups.

Dean Ross and Associate Dean Marie desJardins, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, have recently participated in multiple White House events examining the future of computer science education, particularly how giving more kids exposure to computer science early on could diversify the tech workforce of the future.

Image: Julie Ross. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.