2021-2022 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.
For FY 2022, Elkins Professorship honors are being awarded to:
Towson University to support the work of Dr. Paz Galupo, Professor of Psychology, who will use Professorship funds to understand the unique legal and cultural factors that impact the health care experiences of and lead to health disparities for transgender and nonbinary Marylanders. Year 1 of $30,000 per year for two years
The University of Maryland, Baltimore to support the work of Dr. Radi Masri, Professor in the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and University of Maryland School of Medicine, who will use Professorship funds to conduct research to understand barriers that prevent adult minorities from improving their oral health in the local community and increase access to advanced dental care. $58,000
The University of Maryland, Baltimore to support the work of Dr. Heather B. Congdon, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, FNAP, Co-Director of UMB’s Center for Interprofessional Education, who will use Professorship funds to collaborate with the Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation to scale up targeted Interprofessional Education (IPE) recommendations from the 2018 USM report “Strengthening Maryland’s Health Care Workforce” through a digital badging initiative. $40,000
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to support the work of Dr. Lora A. Harris, Associate Professor, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, who will use Professorship funds to integrate regional and national work into multiple institutions and under-served communities in Maryland to diversify STEM and improve learning outcomes and the engagement of underrepresented students in the environmental and ocean sciences. $40,000
The University of Maryland, College Park to support the work of Dr. Don DeVoe, Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Administration in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who will use Year 2 of his Professorship award to continue developing a novel platform enabling fully automated manipulation of individual cancer and immune cells from highly limited patient samples - technology aimed at enabling a new approach to personalized cancer immunotherapy. Year 2 of $30,000 per year for two years