The Provost

Jennifer King Rice is the University of Maryland’s senior vice president and provost. As the chief academic officer, she steers the university’s academic enterprise in accordance with its mission and vision, including providing strategic direction for its 12 schools and colleges. An accomplished administrator and educator, Rice manages a diverse portfolio, including academic planning and programs, enrollment management, community engagement, faculty affairs, international affairs, academic innovation, and institutional research, planning and assessment. 

Rice’s leadership is driven by her commitment to inclusive excellence, innovative and transformative teaching and learning, and impactful research and scholarship. 

Serving as provost since 2021, Rice led the campuswide development of the university’s ambitious strategic plan. Fearlessly Forward: In Pursuit of Excellence and Impact for the Public Good sets forth UMD's bold vision of being a university in service to humanity through an unwavering dedication to advancing the public good. Reflecting her collaborative, innovative and values-centered approach, the plan is guided by the university’s shared commitments to reimagine learning, take on humanity’s grand challenges, invest in people and communities, and partner to advance the public good.

Under her leadership, the university’s academic enterprise has achieved remarkable growth and transformation. She has led major advances in teaching and learning, championing new academic models, experiential learning opportunities and inclusive pedagogies that prepare educators and students for a rapidly changing world. These successes have led to the university achieving its highest-ever public university ranking, at No. 16 by U.S. News & World Report, and recognition as one of the best in the nation for its graduation rates, faculty scholarly and research excellence, and undergraduate entrepreneurship programs. 

She has been the driving force behind several landmark initiatives, including the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM)—UMD’s hub for AI research, education and collaboration grounded in ethics, responsibility and serving the public good. Since its launch in 2024, AIM has advanced interdisciplinary teaching, research and degree programs, strengthening UMD’s standing among the nation’s top 10 public universities in artificial intelligence.

Rice helped develop the $30 million Grand Challenges Grants Program, the largest and most comprehensive initiative of its kind in UMD’s history, designed to support bold, collaborative solutions to society’s most pressing issues. Its 50 funded projects have attracted nearly double the university’s initial investment in external support and engaged thousands of students, faculty, and partners on campus, in the community, and around the world.

Rice’s commitment to expanding access to the state’s flagship university for Marylanders led to the creation of the Terrapin Commitment, the university’s largest single-year investment in need-based financial aid. The $20 million annual investment ensures tuition and fees are fully covered for low-income, full-time Maryland undergraduates, and has already supported more than 8,000 students since its launch in 2022.

She also established the university’s Center for Community Engagement, focused on facilitating connections and partnerships to support impact-driven and community-centered research, teaching and service. 

Under Rice’s leadership, the university has achieved record fundraising for its academic enterprise, securing philanthropic support for student scholarships, endowed faculty positions and new academic facilities. She provides strategic leadership for the Do Good Campus initiative, a philanthropically supported effort that reimagines learning inside and outside the classroom—equipping students with the knowledge, experiences and resources to create meaningful societal impact.

Rice has served on the faculty and in leadership roles at UMD for three decades and has been recognized as a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. Prior to becoming provost, she served as dean of the College of Education, where she launched new academic programs, advanced initiatives to cultivate an environment of belonging and community, expanded research activity to unprecedented levels, and strengthened the college’s national standing. 

Some of her priorities as dean included encouraging faculty to think critically about how they measure their real-world impact, studying and restructuring teacher education programs to improve teacher quality, and providing research-informed professional development to practicing educators—now the EdTerp Learning Academy. She also introduced TerpsExceed, a two-year college experience for students with intellectual disabilities.

Before joining the faculty at Maryland, she was a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C. A prolific scholar and fellow of the American Education Research Association, she draws on the disciplines of economics and philosophy to understand the policies, practices and resources needed to support more effective and equitable educational opportunities for all students.

Rice has published five books and more than 60 journal articles and book chapters. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Educational Administration Quarterly and the National Education Policy Center, and is a fellow of the National Education Policy Center. She previously served on the editorial boards of American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Education Finance and Policy, and is a past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy. She is a member of the Politics of Education Association, Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities Provost Group, and has been a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellow and a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute.  

Rice has been spotlighted as an influential higher education leader in the National Capital Region, regularly named to The Daily Record’s “Higher Education Power List,” and recognized by Washingtonian magazine among the region’s most powerful women in higher education for her visionary leadership and dedication to educational equity.

She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and English at Marquette University, where she was also honored with the Professional Achievement Award from the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her masters and doctorate in educational administration and social foundations from Cornell University.