Chance and faith: These two forces have shaped the trajectory of Jeanne van Briesen’s life (while also inspiring the names for her two Russian Blue cats). It was by chance that she went down the research path after unexpectedly losing her first job—teaching high school science. Faith later gave her the courage to begin an academic career at an institution (Carnegie Mellon University) that felt like the right fit, even when her Ph.D. in civil engineering could have led to the industrial job she originally planned to take. And chance and faith worked together to bring van Briesen to UMBC, where she took the position of Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) this summer. 

“I first visited UMBC about 15 years ago to give an invited talk, and I really enjoyed the visit,” she says. “The energy on campus, from the students to the faculty and staff, was exciting. I felt like, ‘I should be watching this place.’” 

So when the COEIT deanship opened at a time when van Briesen was ready to make her next career move, she once again felt two familiar forces guiding her. “I do feel like there was a little bit of chance involved in this move—the position opening up just as I was leaving the National Science Foundation and my youngest child was finishing his college journey. A little bit of chance and a little bit of faith brought me here. And, I’m loving it. It feels like home.”

As the campus welcomes new and returning students and faculty for the fall semester, van Briesen shares what she loves about higher ed and how excited she is to start the new school year.

Q: How did you decide on a career in academia? 

A: I started my career as a high school chemistry and physics teacher. I thought that was the most fun anybody could have. But after a year, I was laid off because the teacher I had been hired to replace decided unexpectedly to return. So I went to graduate school to get my master’s degree, and I fell in love with research. I loved doing research so much that I stayed to do my Ph.D. When I finished that, I was like, ‘Well, what job can I do where I can do both research and teaching?’ And that’s why I became a professor—because I could do both of the things I loved. And every day I get to engage with students and faculty about teaching and research, I know I made the right choice.

Q: Could you tell us more about your research?

A: My research focuses on water systems, both natural systems, like rivers and lakes and streams, and engineered systems, like drinking water and wastewater systems. I look at how reactions—whether biological, chemical, or geological—affect the transport and transformation of synthetic chemicals in these systems.

I also did a fair amount of work looking at microbial species: bacteria that we either don’t like because they make us sick, or bacteria that we do like because they can transform synthetic chemicals and clean up our environment. Over time, the work in my group changed the way we understand how interactions in natural systems affect interactions in engineered systems. For example, we would look at what’s changing in the river and then how those changes make it more difficult to treat the drinking water for people. 

Q: Which of your research findings do you feel has had the most impact so far?

A: Some research I was doing in southwestern Pennsylvania was related to the development of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas development in the region. There was a lot of discussion about whether shale gas development was using too much water or whether it was producing too much wastewater. And in a lot of ways, the answer was no, it wasn’t that different from other industries that used water and produced wastewater. Engineers have been managing those things for a long time to protect the environment while enabling energy production for people. 

But one thing that was different was that wastewater from gas development was being discharged into the environment with minimal treatment. The wastewater didn’t have many negative effects on the river. But in the drinking water plant, bromide from the wastewater interacted with naturally-occurring organic matter and the chlorine used to disinfect the water to produce brominated disinfection by-products. These chemicals are carcinogenic and teratogenic, and this can lead to negative health impacts when people use the treated water for drinking and bathing. 

The shale gas industry didn’t know that was going to happen, and the drinking water industry wasn’t expecting that outcome either. My research team’s systems-level work—looking at the whole river, including wastewater discharges and drinking water withdrawals—really changed the understanding that the region had about those impacts. It led to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection working with the industry to stop those discharges.

So that was the work I did where I could look back and say, ‘I had an impact in my own community, for people in my hometown. My work saved lives.’

Q: What attracted you most to the COEIT deanship?

A: When I first visited UMBC, I was so impressed. The students were clearly engaged in their learning. The faculty were really committed to teaching and research, and that combination of research and teaching in higher ed is so important to me. And, the vision—to redefine excellence through an inclusive culture—that really resonated with me. 

The deanship was particularly attractive because of the opportunity to expand my impact. A lot of what faculty do is enable the success of students, and I love that role. And as a dean, you enable the success of everyone in the college—faculty, staff, students, and alumni. And so a dean role really takes that faculty role of enabling the success of others to the next level. 

Taking on any new role is a leap of faith. And, the chance to lead at UMBC felt worth it. 

Q: What have been your strongest impressions since arriving as dean?

A: The thing that’s struck me the most is that everyone’s really committed to the mission of UMBC. When people here talk about inclusive excellence, it’s not a catch phrase, it’s who we are fundamentally at the core of the institution. 

And the other thing is that everyone works really hard. Everyone’s invested in student success, and they’re always generating new ideas for how we can help students be successful. That’s very exciting.

Q: What do you love most about being an engineer? 

A: I like solving real problems for real people. I mean, I can get lost in the theoretical world, and I love deepening our fundamental understanding, but I always want to tie my research to some real problem, because that’s what engineering is. You don’t hear this often, but engineering and information technology are helping professions. 

The other thing I like about being an engineer is that I always feel like we’re needed. The world will always have increasingly complex and interconnected technical problems that have to be solved if we want people to flourish on the planet. The roles for engineers, computer scientists, and information technologists in different industries are always changing, and there are always more problems to solve. 

Q: And what do you love most about working in higher ed? 

A: Oh, the students, for sure. Every fall, you return to campus, and you get to meet new students. They’re excited to be here, and they bring energy and new ideas every year. They remind me how much I love learning because they love learning. They remind me why I became a teacher. Students arrive with wonderful potential, they grow while they’re here, and they go out into the world and do amazing things. UMBC exists to nurture that potential, help our students grow and learn, and to proudly look on as they change the world. 

Q: What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? 

A: Learning! I would probably give that answer every year because I am happiest when I’m learning. In this particular year, I’ve come to a new place and have a new job, so there will be even more learning fun. I’m going to be meeting students, staff, faculty, and alumni, not just from COEIT, but from everywhere at UMBC, and throughout Maryland and beyond. All of these meetings will help me understand who we are and what we aspire to be. That will help me fulfill my goal to enable success in my college, the university, and our communities. 

I am really excited to be here. Since arriving, I’ve learned so much from everyone I’ve met, and I’m looking forward to much more of that during this year.

Learn more about the College of Engineering and Information Technology.

Imagine encountering a PDF flagged in Ally for having no embedded title, missing language metadata, or being a scanned-only image. Ally’s latest update brings a trio of PDF "quick fixes" that turn what used to require Adobe Acrobat into a streamlined, in‑context workflow, making remediation smoother and more efficient than ever before.

Now, without leaving Blackboard -- or opening a separate PDF editor -- faculty can:

• Add or revise the document title via a built-in input field and click “Apply fix”
• Specify the document’s language (English, Spanish, etc.) through a dropdown menu and apply the fix right away
• Convert a scanned PDF to readable text with OCR: preview the result, optionally download the original scan, then apply the fix and let Ally overwrite the file seamlessly

These tools appear automatically in the Instructor Feedback panel.

Why It Matters to Faculty and Students

For too long, accessibility fixes meant downloading content, editing it in specialized tools, and reuploading. However, Ally’s quick fixes will help keep the workflow as tight as possible since files are overwritten in place to avoid duplication and storage bloat.

These changes don’t just boost Ally scores -- they enhance access, comprehension, and usability for all students, particularly those using assistive technologies.

Learn more about Ally

For more information about Ally, please join our upcoming session, Ally Reporting to Improve Course Accessibility, on September 30. 

Ready to take the first step? Visit UMBC’s Digital Accessibility site or run an Ally course report today. Support is also available from Student Disability Services and Instructional Technology.

Welcome to the 2025-2026 academic year!