Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year 2023! We hope you spent some time over the holidays reflecting on your accomplishments and looking forward to new possibilities in the new year.

In the spirit of reflection and planning, we would love to gather your feedback on our recent Service Awards program. Whether you attended in person or virtually or you chose not to attend at all, we would love any and all input, which will help us plan even better ceremonies to come. 

This short, anonymous survey takes only 3-5 minutes to complete. Please share your thoughts with us by January 20, 2023.

We invite those of you who missed the event to catch the recording here.

Thank you for all that you do to contribute to our vibrant community.

Lynne Adams, Chief Human Resources Officer

Take the Survey

Just like the people that are part of our community, UMBC experienced a year of change, growth, and opportunity in 2022. Exciting achievements, transformative leadership, and groundbreaking research made this another year for the record books. Looking back at 2022, we’re reminded of all the reasons we’re proud to call UMBC home.

1. University milestones

• UMBC welcomed Valerie Sheares Ashby as the president, following the retirement of Freeman A. Hrabowski III, who served as UMBC’s leader for a remarkable 30 years. President Sheares Ashby joined UMBC from Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, where she had served as dean. Since starting her tenure, Sheares Ashby has made herself accessible to students through weekly office hours. She’s also enjoyed taking part in some time-honored UMBC traditions, like rubbing True Grit’s nose for luck and taking in all that Homecoming has to offer. 

• Kimberly R. Moffitt was named the new dean of UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), after serving as interim dean since August 2020.
  
  
• UMBC officially reached the nation’s highest level of research performance. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education announced that UMBC has been placed into the category of doctoral universities with very high research activity, popularly known as Research 1 (or R1). UMBC is now ranked as one of only 146 R1 institutions nationally.
  

• The 2022 – 23 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges undergraduate rankings show UMBC jumping an impressive 25 spots on the list of Best National Universities, in addition to ranking #9 nationally for undergraduate teaching and #10 most innovative, tied with Johns Hopkins. U.S. News also announced its 2023 Best Graduate School rankings, including outstanding UMBC graduate programs across all three colleges. 

2. Student and alumni experiences

• With well over 2,100 new first-year students, and record numbers of graduate and international students, UMBC welcomed its largest class in school history. Several of UMBC’s remarkable current students and community members were showcased as part of Amazon’s Prime’s “The College Tour” series.
  

• Fearless, a company founded by Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, led the development of the Searchable Museum to complement the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s (NMAAHC) “Slavery and Freedom” exhibition. The team included visual arts, computer science, and computer engineering alumni.
  
  
• Jok Abraham Thon, UMBC’s first Peaceworker Global Fellow and the first Retriever from South Sudan, shared his story of leadership and social impact at UMBC’s Fall Opening Meeting and his experience as an international student in the Baltimore Sun.

• Marcie and David Zisow marked the 53rd anniversary of their first conversation at a shared table at True Grit’s. The Zisows’ youngest child was inspired by their love story to create a surprise celebration for her parents, recreating their 1969 meet-cute. UMBC Dining offered up their services, including baking an anniversary cake, playing music from the ’60s and ’70s, and creating a photo slideshow of Marcie (’72, M.A. ’84) and David (’71) to show on the screens of the dining hall.

3. Student leadership and achievement

• UMBC students excelled in leadership, research, and service. Four UMBC students were named 2022 – 23 Goldwater Scholars, tying the university’s past record. Eight UMBC students and alumni earned 2022 Fulbright U.S. Student scholarships to travel to countries across three continents. 

• Farah Helal ’24, global studies and political science, became University System of Maryland (USM) student regent, representing the student voice on issues such as tuition rates and new degree programs.

• Haleemat Adekoya ’23, political science, was named one of just 58 new Truman Scholars nationwide. Adekoya is the fifth UMBC student to receive this honor, focused on public service. Truman Scholarship finalist Rehman Liaqat ’22, political science, received the inaugural Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic Civic Fellowship, for student leaders who are “engaged global citizens, actively contributing to the creation of equitable, healthy, sustainable, and socially just communities.”

4. Achievements in athletics and intellectual sports

• Three was the magic number for UMBC Athletics this past year. Both UMBC volleyball and softball captured their third consecutive America East titles to continue on at NCAA tournament play.
  

• Softball star Courtney Coppersmith ’22, biochemistry and molecular biology, was named America East Woman of the Year. Coppersmith was the first Retriever in university history to achieve this honor.
  
  
• UMBC men’s swimming and diving reclaimed the 2022 America East Championship title to win their 13th championship out of 15 appearances.

• UMBC is again a national champion, now in ChemE Jeopardy. A UMBC student team of chemical engineering majors emerged victorious at the national competition hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

5. Public research for the public good

• GRIT-X returned to UMBC for its sixth year, delivering a wide-ranging lineup of Retriever excellence in action—highlighting research and creative achievement from different fields. One presenter, Airi Yoshioka, professor of music, illuminated how the cultural background of a composer manifests in the music they create. 

• Katherine Seley-Radtke, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is part of a consortium that will receive $65 million over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop virus-fighting fleximer compounds. At the same time, Phyllis Robinson, professor of biological sciences, has received a $2.5 million grant from NIH to advance study of critical eye protein.

• Vandana Janeja, professor and chair of information systems, is the principal investigator on a five-year, $13 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from the Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea program to analyze enormous volumes of climate data and Arctic and Antarctic observations in ways that could help populations prepare for and respond to sea level rise and other risks.
  
  
• Numerous humanities and social science faculty received prominent fellowships to support innovative research. The Henry Luce Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies awarded Christopher K. Tong, assistant professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, a fellowship to examine ecological consciousness and political representation in modern China. Yolanda Valencia, assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, and María Célleri, assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, received Mellon Fellowships for research on an immigrant community in Washington and postcolonial transformation of Quito, Ecuador, respectively. Elizabeth Patton, associate professor of media and communication studies; Mirjam Voerkelius, assistant professor of history; and Amy Froide, professor and chair of history, received fellowships to explore unique historical events in the United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom. 

• UMBC faculty earned prestigious NSF CAREER Awards. Cynthia Matuszek, computer science and electrical engineering, will use her award to study how robots learn about the physical world from spoken language to improve how they work with people. Lauren Clay, associate professor and chair of emergency health services, will develop a sociocultural model called Food Environment in Disasters (FED) to improve the understanding and monitoring of food availability, acceptability, and accessibility during disasters. Stay tuned for news of 2023 CAREER Award recipients, coming soon.

6. Investments in high-impact UMBC programs

• The largest gift in the history of UMBC—a $21 million donation from the Sherman Family Foundation—will dramatically expand the reach and impact of the university’s K-12 and early childhood education work.
  

• UMBC will expand its work boosting diversity in academia from Maryland to the national level through a new NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Re-Imagining STEM Equity Utilizing Postdoc Pathways (RISE UPP). RISE UPP seeks to help R1, R2, and teaching-intensive institutions recruit and train postdoctoral scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM.
   
• UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences is receiving $5.6 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to fund the Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE). This program supports graduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM with funding for up to three years and a broad range of training opportunities.

Contributing authors: Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque; Adriana Fraser; Sarah Hansen, M.S. ’15; Randianne Leyshon ’09; Megan Hanks Mastrola; Kait McCaffrey; Jenny O’Grady; and Dinah Winnick.

Dear Community Members, 

Our campus teams and partners continue to address the damage caused across campus. Unfortunately, at this time, both the Administration and Biological Sciences (Schwartz Hall) buildings will remain closed until further notice. We expect these closures to last at least through next week. 

Staff should continue to work remotely and should not access buildings without explicit permission from the provost, your vice president, or dean. If you have questions about your work schedule while the building is closed or the status of your office or laboratory, please connect with your supervisor. 

When expected opening dates are determined, we will share these with you as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and partnership as we make sure the buildings are safe.

Kathy L. Dettloff, Vice President for Administration and Finance

Core Subject Teaching Specialists (CSTSs) are key partners in Arts Every Day’s development of training content for Baltimore teachers through the Baltimore Arts Integration Project. As long-term collaborators, CSTSs commit to a yearly cycle of training; curriculum development together with a designated teaching artist partner from an artistic discipline (Resident Teaching Artist Fellows); and arts-integrated lesson implementation in the classroom.

Register for the panel HERE 

Resident Teaching Artist Fellows (RTAFs) are key partners in Arts Every Day’s development of training content for Baltimore teachers through the Baltimore Arts Integration Project. As long-term collaborators, RTAFs commit to a yearly cycle of training; curriculum development together with a designated partner from a core subject area (Core Subject Teaching Specialists); and content delivery through filmed modules, in-person workshops, and collaborative co-teaching/teacher mentorship.

Togetherall our mental health peer support online chat forum is hosting three open demonstrations. This is a great opportunity to see the platform in action, whether someone needs a refresher or if someone knows nothing about Togetherall.  This is available to all faculty, staff or students at UMBC. If interested, you are welcome to choose the date and time that works for them by clicking the links below. All sessions will cover the same materials. Here is a link to a video on Togetherall.

• January 12th at 10:30 AM EST: Register here
• January 18^th at 1 PM EST: Register here
• January 24^th at 2 PM EST: Register here

About Chesapeake Urban Stormwater Professionals (CUSP) Program

Learn More About CUSP 

About the Chesapeake Stormwater Network