News from the Office of the Provost

Dear Colleagues, 

I am writing to inform you that Dr. Patrice McDermott has shared with me her intention to step down from her position as vice provost for faculty affairs on July 31, 2023. 

Dr. McDermott joined the Office of the Provost in 2009 and has demonstrated outstanding leadership and service as vice provost during the past 14 years. In addition to her many administrative and oversight responsibilities, her commitment to faculty diversity and inclusion over many years has been both remarkable and deeply impactful. Under her leadership, the Office of Faculty Affairs has designed and developed many programs and initiatives focused on enhancing faculty diversity and faculty support. This included the development of new faculty recruitment strategies and postdoctoral pathways, STRIDE, faculty affinity groups, and UMBC's faculty leave policies, the latter of which formed the basis of USM's current policy. 

As vice provost, Dr. McDermott also advanced a wide range of institutional and transformational change projects including, most recently, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leadership Grant to advance faculty leadership development, the NIH STEM BUILD grant to advance undergraduate diversity and success in STEM fields, and the NSF Maryland AGEP Promise Academy Alliance (APAA) to increase the number of historically underrepresented minority tenure-track faculty. She holds an appointment as a senior scholar at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), where she works toward national change as a member of the Board of Directors for the Society of STEM Women of Color (SSWOC) and the AAC&U Inclusive Excellence Commission. 

Dr. McDermott joined the UMBC faculty in 1993 as a member of the American Studies Department, which she has served as chair. She previously served in leadership positions as associate dean and as a special assistant to the dean in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, worked with then-President Freeman Hrabowski as lead Co-PI of the NSF-funded ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant, and established the UMBC Office of Faculty Diversity Initiatives. 

I am deeply grateful to Dr. McDermott for her leadership as vice provost and for being such an outstanding colleague for so many years. Personally, I have deeply appreciated and benefited greatly from her insight and commitment in advancing our work together and the shared values and vision of our UMBC community. I hope you will join me in thanking her for her exemplary service and in wishing her well in continuing her work as Co-PI, with Dean Kimberly Moffitt, on the Andrew Mellon Foundation grant awarded jointly to UMBC, UMD, and Morgan State University to diversify senior leadership in higher education. 

Sincerely,