UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby will host the 2026 Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, May 13, in the University Center Ballroom. The event will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. and will include an awards ceremony and reception recognizing faculty, staff, and university honorees for excellence in teaching, research, mentorship, service, and creative achievement.

Several UMBC community members have received the University System of Maryland Board of Regents awards, including Tara Carpenter for Excellence in Teaching, Michael Summers for Excellence in Mentoring, Curtis Menyuk for Excellence in Scholarship or Research, Brian Kaufman for Excellence in Creative Activity, and Laura Schraven for Outstanding Service for Students.

Other featured honorees include Lindsay DiCuirci, named 2026 – 2029 Presidential Teaching Professor, and Weidong Zhu, selected as 2026 – 2029 Presidential Research Professor. Joby Taylor, Ph.D. ’05, will receive the 2026 Presidential Distinguished Exempt Staff award, while Michele Kimery will be recognized as the 2026 Presidential Distinguished Non-Exempt Staff honoree.

Additional university honors will be presented to David Clurman and Michael Canale, recipients of the 2026 Diane M. Lee Teaching Award; Keith Harmon, recipient of the 2026 Jakubik Family Endowment Staff Award; Maisha Cron, recipient of the 2026 Karen L. Wensch Endowment Award for Outstanding Non-Exempt Staff; Ramana Vinjamuri, recipient of the 2026 Marilyn E. Demorest Award for Faculty Advancement; David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, recipient of the 2026 Teresa Lupinek Endowment Award; and Mehdi Benna, recipient of the 2026 UMBC Research Faculty Excellence Award.

B.S.: Biopsychosocial Approaches to Health and Disease

Minors/ Certiicates on Graduation Record:

• Semester Academic Honors| Spring 2025
• President's List | Fall 2025
• Cum Laude 

Degree Mentors: 

• Dr. Mettassebia B Kanno, MD| Health Provider, Infectious Diseases, Kaiser Permanente 
• Dr. Tonya Webb | Professor of Microbiology and Immunology |UMSOM Assistant Dean
• Dr. James DeVita | Assistant Vice President for Academic Partnerships & High Impact Experiences
• Steven McAlpine| Assistant Teaching Professor, UMBC Individualized Study 

Why did you choose to major in INDS?

I realized that many courses in the Biology major didn’t directly align with my interest in human health and disease, often focusing more on plant and animal systems or lacking a broader policy perspective. I saw this as an opportunity to integrate multiple disciplines, such as psychology, public health, epidemiology, and the biological sciences, to create a more well-rounded academic path that better reflects my interests.

What are your plans for after graduation, and how do you see using your INDS degree?

I plan to attend a postbaccalaureate program and apply to graduate school to earn my doctorate degree.

Were you involved in any clubs or organizations?

• Tau Sigma Honor Society| Public Relations Coordinator 
• Researcher| Undergraduate Reasearch Achievement Day URCAD with research from my experiences at UMBC and the Medical University of South Carolina
• Researcher| Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the Medical University of South Carolina- 2024
  • Studied CAR-T cell therapy for blood cancers like B cell lymphoma in the O’Neil Lab. My work contributed to developing a novel drug-inducible gene “safety switch” in human T cells to improve the safety of engineered therapies. 
  • In 2025, I worked at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, focusing on strategies to enhance CAR-T cell effectiveness. I investigated how modifying signaling pathways influences T cell function and their ability to sustain cancer cell elimination.

For More information on Nicole's INDS journey please click here!

Original Post w/Information and RSVP: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/predental/events/152132 

Ever wonder what makes a candidate stand out to an admissions committee?  Hear directly from the admissions perspective! Before Walter Parrish began his current role as Assistant Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs at UMBC, he worked in outreach and admissions at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and he's offered to answer YOUR questions about what medical schools are looking for in applicants. Send us your questions in advance here!

This Pre-Health Advising sponsored event will take place TODAY from 3:30PM -5PM in The Learning Collaboratory (TLC) -- UC 115. Do not miss this!! 

Vicky is an actor and producing artist currently working in the Baltimore area. They were seen most recently in Romeo and Juliet at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and a staged reading of An Enemy to the People by Nigel Semaj at Johns Hopkins University. Vicky has performed at Baltimore Center Stage (Our Town, Young Playwrights Festival), The Voxel (Call Me By Any Other Name… Just As Sweet, Salty, I Will Eat You Alive), The National Aquarium (Voyages: Chapter 7), and The Strand (The Long Christmas Ride Home). Vicky has also directed staged readings of Selkie at Red Emma’s Bookstore and THE SUPREMEZ: LIVE AT ROOKIES at the Voxel for the T4T4T Festival. Vicky works regularly with Submersive Productions and is currently on the producing team for their next project, The Pansy Hour.

Vicky graduated in Spring 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, having a career in theatre looked nearly impossible. Afraid of losing valuable skills learned from professors like Lynn Watson, Eve Muson, and Chelsea Pace, Vicky was able to do Zoom readings with friends and performed in two staged readings with the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company led by Gerrad Taylor. Alongside many fellow UMBC alumni, Vicky saw auditions slowly begin to emerge, and more opportunities began to arise.

“If I could tell a UMBC theater student anything, it would be to never give up on yourself. There were many times during college when I was struggling in multiple different areas, from financial instability to depression. My friends and classmates have become such a valuable support system. We tell each other about opportunities, go to each other’s shows, and help each other develop new work. It’s always a relief to see familiar faces in the audition room. With their encouragement, I feel like I can do anything. Even when the future feels completely unpredictable, believing in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals will help you succeed.” 

Wednesday, May 13th, 11-2 PM Study Con: Relax & Refuel

Find us for our last event of the semester! OHP will be joining the AOK Library for their annual Relax & Refuel. We'll have sleep masks, snacks and sleep-themed Spin-the-Wheel. 

*All events are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Starting on the morning of May 11, 2026, a significant service disruption in the Webex cloud began affecting various sites. As a result, users have reported difficulties, including Webex links when scheduling meetings through Google Calendar. Existing scheduled meetings are unaffected.

Users may track updates regarding this outage using this link. In the meantime, users can schedule meetings directly from their Webex site and copy the meeting details to their Google Calendar. Additionally, users can use @webex (Personal Meeting Room) or @meet (ad hoc meeting) in the location field to schedule a Webex meeting.

Ray Soellner

Director - DoIT

rays1@umbc.edu

The Mosaic Center will be on adjusted hours Monday, May 11, through Wednesday, May 20, for end-of-the-year celebrations and finals week. Please see below for our upcoming hours. 

Monday, May 11: 10 AM - 4 PM 

Tuesday, May 12: 10 AM - 6 PM 

Wednesday, May 13: 10 AM - 7 PM 

Thursday, May 14: CLOSED (Join us at the Asian Cultural Celebration & Awards)

Friday, May 15: 10 AM - 5 PM 

Monday, May 18: CLOSED (Join us at the Black & Latine/x Celebration & Awards) 

Tuesday, May 19:  10 AM - 5 PM 

Wednesday, May 20: 10 AM - 5 PM 

Beginning Thursday, May 21, 2026, the Mosiac Center will be closed for the summer session. Please see our upcoming post for more information. We wish you all the best as we enter finals season! 

In March, we published the "Launching UMBC’s Sonography Program Application" article, recognizing some of the hard work that went into integrating UMBC’s Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program (DMSP) and building a functioning application for prospective students. These efforts were invaluable and gave many professional teams a chance to shine. Additionally, the application and its relevant technical work were only one side of the coin. Efforts towards bringing the DMSP home stretched much deeper and encompassed more groups than could fit into a single highlight. One of these groups was Instructional Technology and their work and support of Sonography instructors during the course migration from Moodle to Blackboard. 

Prior to the move, UMBC’s Sonography Program had utilized Moodle as its learning management system (LMS) to support in-person courses with an online component. However, the Moodle contract was set to expire in November of 2024, creating a problem in need of immediate addressing. The solution was clear: migrate the program's courses to Blackboard Ultra, UMBC’s own learning management system. However, only one of the instructors ad previous experience teaching with Blackboard, which meant this was an entirely new experience for the majority of instructors. As such, this process was not a simple technology migration, but an ongoing effort of training and supporting instructors on the part of Instructional Technology.

The initiative began in February 2024, when LaMar Davis, Senior Director of the Institute of eXtended Learning (Often shortened and referred to as IXL), reached out to the Instructional Technology team to explain the situation. While ties with Moodle would not be cut until November, the 13.5-month-long Sonography program actually starts in July, making mid-summer an optimal early deadline, if possible. This proactivity on the part of LaMar aimed to avoid having pressure on instructors  when the time to switch from Moodle came. The core task would be to help them learn how to use Blackboard in the same way they designed and taught in Moodle. This training includes all functions, such as course content uploads, grading, assignments, announcements, and engagement. The instructors were very much students themselves in this situation, relying on training sessions and one-on-one support to ensure they were ready and confident to use Blackboard effectively. 

The core figures from Instructional Technology involved in the effort were Dr. Mariann Hawken, Dr. Susan Biro, Dr. Ben Amudzi, and Dr. Josh Abrams, each offering vital contributions to planning, technical administration, and Blackboard training. The process included breaking down Bb training into small, comprehensible pieces for the instructors as the teams were getting an idea of the course content transfer process from Moodle to Blackboard. Ben and Josh led early reviews of syllabi and key topics as the structure for the training took shape. As the process unfolded, Ben also took initiative in organizing Blackboard resources and providing ongoing follow-up and support. The training was delivered through a series of workshops, where knowledge was gradually built up for the instructors. Items such as third-party tools, core Blackboard functionality, and creatable components were addressed throughout. ‘Sandbox’ courses were used as instructors acclimated to Blackboard and practiced different skills, offering a clean environment to do so. Ensuring that the instructors were comfortable and not overwhelmed by the flow of information was at the forefront of the team’s priorities, especially when it came time to build courses in Blackboard, with the same going for establishing ongoing support.. 

A difficult portion of the project pertained to the course creation and enrollment process for non-credit courses, which the Sonography program’s 13.5-month certificate falls under. As support for instructors' transition continued, there was a misalignment in back-end processes due to these factors. The unique course situation with non-credit courses does not align with UMBC’s automated systems for traditional credit 15-week, two-semester academic calendar. This resulted in critical collaboration among Instructional Technology, the Sonography Program coordinator, and other technical teams in DoIT to manually create processes to support Sonography course creation and student enrollments. In particular, this collaboration established a special term code for the timeframe of the Sonography project, which is unique at the institution. 

 The work, support, and new challenges continue, but these efforts have helped the Sonography Program find itself in an excellent spot. All of this work currently involves many of the technical efforts highlighted in the previous article, with the move of the DMSP truly being an all-encompassing effort. As was the case before, much of the success in this continuous initiative would not have been possible without the work of the talented professionals in Instructional Technology.

The Dresher Center for the Humanities Advisory Board has awarded fellowships to the following UMBC faculty for Summer and Fall 2026

Summer 2026 Fellows (Tenure and Non-tenure track)

Haniyeh Barahouie, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication - Sahelian Sisterhood: Reproductive Tenderness and Women’s Resistance in Moolaadé, Le Pagne, and Lingui

This project examines how three Sahelian films, including the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène’s Moolaadé (2004), the Nigerien Moussa Hamadou Djingarey’s Le Pagne (2015), and the Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Lingui (2021), portray women supporting one another through reproductive crises such as female genital cutting, rape, and illegal abortion.

Lisa Cassell, Assistant Professor, Philosophy - Logic's Own Epistemology: Two Notions of Rationality

This project provides a foundational account of logic that centers systems of probabilistic reasoning. Cassell will argue that what looks like a foundational problem for systems of probabilistic reasoning is actually the result of conflating two notions of rationality that are both assumed to provide the normative foundations of these systems. The first of these is a scientific notion of rationality, whereas the second is an economic notion of rationality.

Iris Blake, Assistant Teaching Professor, American Studies - Undisciplining the Voice

Undisciplining the Voice proposes that aligning voice with sound and the human has been central to the colonial project of modernity. Focusing on the North American settler context, Blake examines a range of archival and artistic sources – including sound technologies, performances, and installation artworks – to trace not only definitions of voice that have consolidated colonial and heteropatriarchal power structures, but also decolonial genealogies of voicing that I term voicing otherwise.

Fall 2026 Residential Faculty Fellows

Jason Loviglio, Professor, Media and Communication Studies - Smart Speaker as Cassandra

This project draws critical attention to a lively, if overlooked, narrative preoccupation rippling through audio fiction about the role that home-based “smart” appliances play in re-shaping the dynamics of gendered work, domestic power relations, and corporate surveillance.

Brian Van Wyck, Assistant Professor, History - Making Turks, Making Muslims: Islam, Education, and Turkish Migration in the Federal Republic Germany, 1961-2006

The manuscript traces ideas about Turkishness and Islam between Turkey and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from the 1960s to the 1990s. It centers on teachers and imams from Turkey who served the substantial Turkish-origin population in the FRG.

Please join us in congratulating these fellows!

Want to become a Care.com member? Sign up easily with your UMBC email address to receive up to 5 total days of subsidized childcare or eldercare and access to the LifeMart Discount program, with thousands of discounts nationwide! 

Succeed at work: Managing work & life

May 21, 2026 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

Learn strategies to balance work and personal life by identifying stressors, assessing goals and priorities, and effectively managing both professional and personal responsibilities.

By registering, you will receive an email with the playback link of the live session after the session has ended.

Register here

• As a friendly reminder, UMBC employees receive 5 days of backup care per year. These 5 days expire on 6/30/26 when UMBC's care.com benefit year ends.
• With Backup Care, UMBC employee are only responsible for a copay of $3.00 per hour for in-home care or $7.00 per day for in-center care.
• Questions? Please contact hrbenefits@umbc.edu