Provost

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) seeks a Chief Academic Officer who is visionary, strategic, collaborative, and inspirational. UMBC has long served as a national model for innovation in higher education, and this is an exciting and challenging opportunity to rethink the nature of a provostial role. While this new provost will lead and advance the academic enterprise at an R1 institution, they will also work alongside a new Vice President for Student Affairs to create a more holistic student experience. The provost will serve as the second ranking academic leader to the recently appointed president, Dr. Valerie Sheares Ashby, and a key architect of that joint curricular and co-curricular vision.  

Committed to inclusivity and innovation, UMBC is proud to be one of the fastest-growing and most diverse public research universities in the nation, with just over fifty percent of its nearly 14,000 students self-identifying as students of color. The University’s vibrant campus is regarded as a new model for American higher education – a place where talented students, faculty, and staff thrive in a culture that embraces new ideas and strong shared governance.  UMBC is one of a handful of research-intensive and minority-serving institutions in the United States. As the United States becomes increasingly more diverse, UMBC represents the prototype of what universities will look like in the future and, as such, can innovate in ways that will define public higher education. The next provost will work closely with the president to profoundly shape the faculty culture and future direction of UMBC, maintaining the institution’s high standards for teaching, research, service, and student learning, with an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. With the recent appointment of Dr. Sheares Ashby and the institution’s recently-obtained R1 status, the campus is in a state of growth, innovation, and transformation.

In particular, UMBC seeks a leader who will: foster a strong faculty culture as a key member of the president’s senior leadership team; help UMBC maintain its status as a newly-minted R1 institution and promote research strength across all disciplines; collaboratively develop and execute a future-oriented vision for UMBC’s academic programs; promote the intentional and meaningful integration of curricular and co-curricular experiences; further incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into the classroom and beyond; effectively manage the division and its resources while honoring UMBC’s strong system of shared governance; and develop and empower the provost’s team as thought partners and decision-makers. 

Dr. Sheares Ashby has appointed a search committee to conduct this confidential search in partnership with Keight Tucker Kennedy, Berkley Burke, and David Grimes. Confidential nominations, inquiries, and applications may be directed below. 

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, values safety, cultural and ethnic diversity, social responsibility, lifelong learning, equity, and civic engagement. Consistent with these principles, the UMBC does not discriminate in offering equal access to its educational programs and activities or with respect to employment terms and conditions on the basis of a UMBC community member’s race, creed, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy, ancestry, age, gender identity or expression, national origin, veterans status, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or genetic information.