Dear UMBC Community,

Please join us in congratulating Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Janet Rutledge, who has informed us of her intention to retire, effective June 30. Janet retires after 15 years in the role and 25 years with the University System of Maryland (23 of those at UMBC).

Under Janet’s leadership, the Graduate School has developed tremendously, and its enrollment has grown from 2,596 to 3,657. The Graduate School manages the full life cycle of a graduate student—from recruitment and admission through completion and graduation—and among Janet’s accomplishments was the creation of a graduate student development unit that focuses on issues and activities related to diversity, retention, and student success. That unit has expanded to include postdoctoral professional development. Grant funding through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate and other sponsors spurred innovative programming that now has been institutionalized. This past year, the Mentoring Others Results in Excellence (MORE) program was launched to improve communications between faculty and graduate students.

A member of the faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Janet has served previously in the Graduate School as associate dean, senior associate dean, and interim vice provost. Long dedicated to the development of students and faculty, before joining UMBC, she spent several years at the NSF, serving as the program director for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Janet chaired the NSF’s coordinating committee for the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). She has been very active in the graduate education community nationally and internationally, serving as a member of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. Program Advisory Committee and chairing the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Advancement Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on Strengthening Connections to Postgraduate Education in the Global South. She formerly served on the CGS Board of Directors, the TOEFL (English language test) Advisory Board, and the GRE (graduate admissions test) Advisory Board (serving as chair 2017 – 2018).

Janet’s academic career includes several years on the faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and at Northwestern University. She has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than $25 million in grant funding for research and graduate education and was co-PI on NSF’s ADVANCE grant that aimed to increase the number of women faculty in STEM and support their career advancement.

We are grateful to Janet for her many years of service to UMBC and the Graduate School. And we extend our gratitude, as well, to Jeffrey Halverson, associate dean of the Graduate School and professor of geography, who has agreed to serve in an interim capacity as vice provost and dean for the upcoming academic year.

We look forward to the arrival in July of our incoming provost, Manfred H. M. van Dulmen, who will lead a national search for the next dean of the Graduate School.

For now, please join us in expressing our deepest thanks and congratulations to Janet on a wonderful career and best wishes for a happy retirement!

Sincerely,