Announcing New Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dear UMB Community:
We are pleased to share that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has selected a new dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, Kenneth H. Wong, PhD. Dr. Wong is currently the senior associate dean of the Graduate School for the National Capital Region and director of the Northern Virginia Center (NVC) at Virginia Tech. He succeeds Roger J. Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA, who will continue to serve as UMB provost and executive vice president, and to whom Dr. Wong will report.
In his current position, Dr. Wong supports a wide range of graduate degree and certificate programs tailored to the Washington, D.C., region’s economic and professional development needs. Under his leadership, his team has successfully launched various new affinity groups that foster small peer mentoring communities. These groups play a vital role in advising the Graduate School leadership on the needs of a diverse student body.
Additionally, as director of NVC, Dr. Wong is responsible for overseeing the infrastructure and operations of the building. NVC is the home of several academic departments, research labs, a library/makerspace, and more than 30 classrooms.
As a research professor in the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech, he studies medical imaging, radiation therapy, image-guided interventions, and applications of machine learning in these fields. He also has worked extensively in the field of combat casualty care, developing smartphone and communications systems for delivering medical aid to the point of injury and along the evacuation chain.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Brandeis University and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. His postdoctoral training was in the radiology department at Georgetown University.
We want to thank those who participated in our comprehensive national search, especially the search committee chaired by Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and co-chaired by Michelle Pearce, PhD, professor in the Graduate School, along with everyone else who met with the candidates and provided meaningful input and feedback about the candidates and the search process.
We know that you will join us in welcoming Dr. Wong to UMB when he begins Aug. 14.
Sincerely,
Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS
President
Roger J. Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA
Provost and Executive Vice President
