Dr. Candace Caraco Joins USM as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Baltimore, Md. (Dec. 12, 2022) – The University System of Maryland (USM) welcomes Candace Caraco, Ph.D. as its next associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Reporting to USM Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Life Joann Boughman, Caraco’s portfolio of responsibilities as associate vice chancellor will include working closely with provosts of the 12 USM institutions; the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC); leadership of the community colleges and independent colleges and universities; and the Maryland State Department of Education. She will also work with members of the offices of admissions, advising, transfer, registrars, and financial aid of all USM institutions.
Caraco, who begins her service during the week of Dec. 12-16, also will provide written briefs, recommendations, and other support to the Senior Vice Chancellor and Chancellor on critical and strategic issues including (but not limited to) transfer, articulation, enrollment management, and financial aid.
In this position, Caraco oversees the unit within USM’s Office of Academic and Student Affairs that is responsible for articulation, enrollment, and transfer; academic program planning, review, and accreditation; academic policies; scholarships; and the coordination and facilitation of many internal and external stakeholder groups of faculty and students services professionals involved with such issues as residency, financial aid, and admissions.
“We are delighted that Dr. Caraco is starting at USM. Her extensive experience within the USM at the campus level and the Maryland Higher Education Commission will be invaluable,” Boughman said. “Dr. Caraco is a wonderful, collaborative colleague who has already earned the trust of stakeholders within the USM, other segments of higher education, and in Annapolis.
Caraco has more than 30 years of experience in higher education, with an abiding interest in helping to build pathways that enable people to gain an excellent education–regardless of their starting point.
“I’m honored to serve the USM in this role,” Caraco said. “And I look forward to working with colleagues across the system and the state to improve how we serve students and how we can strengthen our educational pathways, providing people with excellent options along their educational and career trajectories.”
She comes to the USM office from the University of Baltimore (UBalt). As associate provost at UBalt, she had oversight of curriculum processes, academic program approval and review, academic policy, Middle States compliance, the Denit Honors Program, General Education, academic records, and elements of academic assessment, administrative policy and compliance, faculty affairs, and UBalt academic operations at the Universities at Shady Grove.
Previously she served as the president’s chief of staff at Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she also taught in the graduate English program. Before that position, Caraco was in academic affairs at the Maryland Higher Education Commission, staffed the Governor’s P20 Leadership Council, served as an education policy analyst, and gained experience in institutional grants. At the University of Virginia, she helped launch the nontraditional completer degree, worked in undergraduate admissions, taught English courses, directed the Writing Center, and served as general faculty at the Papers of George Washington.
Caraco will succeed Dr. Antoinette Coleman, who served USM in the same position since August 2017. Coleman recently joined the City University of New York (CUNY). Upon her departure, the USM praised Coleman for her considerable support of enrollment management executives and other student services professionals at USM institutions, and her guidance in helping the USM to keep pace with legislative and regulatory changes in the state.
Caraco earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia. She graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester with undergraduate degrees in French and English.
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The USM comprises 12 institutions: Bowie State University; Coppin State University; Frostburg State University; Salisbury University; Towson University; the University of Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and the University of Maryland Global Campus. The USM also includes three regional centers—the Universities at Shady Grove, the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, and the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland—at which USM universities offer upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses.
USM institutions and programs are among the nation's best in quality and value according to several national rankings. To learn more about the University System of Maryland, visit www.usmd.edu. To learn about the new USM Strategic Plan, “Vision 2030: From Excellence to Preeminence,” visit https://www.usmd.edu/vision2030/.
Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu
