2020-2021 Elkins Professorships


The University System of Maryland (USM) has awarded the FY 2021 Wilson H. Elkins Professorships to faculty members at four USM institutions.

The Wilson H. Elkins Professorship honors the late Wilson H. Elkins, who led the University of Maryland, College Park to new levels of distinction as its president from 1954 to 1978. The Wilson H. Elkins Endowment Fund supports the professorship awards in combination with institutional and system resources. This endowment and others like it further USM's mission of teaching, research, and public service.

The Elkins Professorships support professors and researchers who demonstrate exemplary ability to inspire students and whose professional work and scholarly endeavors make a positive impact at their universities, the entire system, and beyond. Candidates for the Elkins Professorship must possess a solid record of achievement in their academic or professional disciplines; demonstrate a desire and ability to lead and inspire undergraduate and graduate students; show significant achievement beyond their traditional disciplines; and demonstrate ability and intent to pursue scholarly or professional activities beyond USM.

This year's award winners are:

Award to Bowie State University to support the work of Dr. Julius Davis, who won a partial award last year, and plans to expand and institutionalize the Center for Research and Mentoring of Black Male Students and Teachers with its foci on recruiting Black males into teacher education programs and the profession, addressing college access concerns for that group, as well as conducting research. $45,000.

Award to Coppin State University to support the work of Dr. Kesslyn Brade-Stennis who plans to facilitate community change by creating policy and service-related community engagement experiences for students at Coppin and across the USM in an effort to promote social justice leadership and community empowerment. $45,000

Award to the University of Baltimore to support the work of Professor Mortimer Sellers who will receive part two of a two-year award he won last year. The funding will provide continued support to the Law and Justice Program that: 1) offers classes; 2) coordinates UB students working with partner NGOs on specific law and justice projects; 3) receives cooperating experts for a series of public lectures; 4) pursues research in law and justice; and 5) publishes books and articles. $35,000

Award to the University of Maryland, College Park to support the work of Dr. Don DeVoe who plans to involve graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in research focusing on advancing a unique platform for developing personalized cancer immunotherapies through the automated manipulation of individual cancer and immune cells, groundbreaking work at the intersection of engineering, biology, and the medical sciences. $30,000 per year for two years.

Elkins Academic Transformation Professorships

Multiple awards to faculty across institutions in Western Maryland to support their collaborative efforts to adopt, adapt, create, and scale the use of fully accessible, freely available educational resources as part of the Maryland Open Source Textbook initiative (part of the Maryland General Assembly’s 2017 Textbook Costs Savings Act). Led by Frostburg State University, the project aims specifically at increasing access, affordability, as well as student achievement through enhanced pathways and course redesign. $40,000