New Dean of the Graduate School

Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Steve Fetter has agreed to serve as Associate Provost and Dean of The Graduate School, effective June 1.

I am very grateful to Steve for serving as graduate dean ad interim since last October and extremely pleased that he has agreed to continue in the job on a permanent basis. His leadership of the Graduate school has been characterized by insight, compassion, creativity, and efficiency, and I know he will continue to be an exemplary leader and spokesperson for graduate education on this campus in the years to come. Dr. Loh and I look forward to continuing to work with him as Associate Provost and Dean.

Dr. Fetter joined the University of Maryland in 1988 as an assistant professor, and over three decades he has held many leadership positions at the university. He directed the international security and economic policy program and the environmental policy program in the School of Public Policy, and was Dean of the School of Public Policy from 2005-2009. Dr. Fetter has served as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs since 2013 and was named Acting Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Language earlier this fiscal year.

He has also served in several federal agencies, including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense, and he received the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service. He has held visiting appointments at Stanford University and MIT and postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and has served as President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs.

Dr. Fetter earned his S.B. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in energy and resources. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on International Security and Arms Control; the Board of Directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists; the Board of Editors of Science and Global Security; and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of its Forum Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding of issues involving the interface of physics and society. 

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Fetter to this important role.

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Rankin