Bill Joyner, JD, MSW
Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement and Partnerships
Phone: 410-706-7823
Email: wjoyner@umaryland.edu
Bill Joyner became the University of Maryland, Baltimore's (UMB) assistant vice president for community engagement in August 2022, tasked with leading the University’s Office of Community Engagement (OCE). Before assuming that role, he was UMB’s director of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Prior to that, he served as equity officer for the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), senior economic inclusion specialist and community engagement coordinator for OCE, and an admissions specialist at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.
Joyner received his JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and his MSW from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He is pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.
In his former role at OCE, Joyner designed and led UMB’s local purchasing initiatives, resulting in an increase in spending with local minority- and woman-owned businesses in Baltimore from 0.1 percent to more than 15 percent in three years. The program exceeded its initial goals by more than 200 percent ahead of schedule and under budget, and still exists today as an excellent example of UMB's commitment as an anchor organization.
At BPD, he led a coalition of stakeholders to develop the first-ever Strategic Framework to Advance Equity for the department. That work led to the federal government awarding $1.3 million to scale and sustain the community collaboration and neighborhood policing activities they piloted.
Joyner won a 2020 UMB Diversity Recognition Award for outstanding staff member and was named a UMB Champion of Excellence in 2015. He was a nominee in 2020 for the Outstanding Contribution to an Institution by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Awards. In 2022, he was named Field Instructor of the Year at the Coppin State University School of Social Work.
Joyner is a member of the Baltimore Commission on Sustainability and the GLSEN Maryland Board of Directors. He and his husband, Adam, live near UMB’s campus in the Union Square neighborhood.
