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Office of the Provost, Division of Academic Affairs, University of Maryland

Announcements

The Office of the Provost Appoints Linda Steiner as Director of ADVANCE

Linda Steiner

The Office of the Provost has named Linda Steiner, PhD as the new Director of ADVANCE. In this role, now within the Office of Faculty Affairs, Steiner will work in collaboration with university partners, deans, administrators, and other campus leaders to develop and oversee programs that support faculty diversity, productivity, and success across faculty types and ranks.  

Linda Steiner is a Professor of Journalism in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Maryland’s Advance program, and this year will facilitate for the third time, the Keeping Our Faculty (KOF) series for assistant professors. She has served on numerous college and campus diversity committees and has been a member of the President’s Commission on Women’s Issues, the University Senate, and the campus APT committee. She is also the faculty adviser to Project HEAL, which addresses healthy eating and healthy body perceptions. Recent awards include the Eleanor Blum Distinguished Service to Research Award, from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC); and the Teresa Award for the Advancement of Feminist Scholarship, from the International Communication Association.  

“I am thrilled to be involved in this new way with ADVANCE, which has had a major impact on the University and on the individual faculty members, and to work with the Office of Faculty Affairs and other people around campus who are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level. ADVANCE programs have helped countless people succeed and thrive, and I look forward to developing additional ways--some fairly targeted and others more general -- to help improve the campus climate and culture,” said Steiner. 

As Director, Steiner will build on the accomplishments of UMD’s ADVANCE initiative to date in addressing issues of diversity and equity in the entire faculty community. She will also develop new initiatives and programming to complement the current faculty leadership and development offerings at the University.

Before coming to Maryland in 2006, Dr. Steiner taught at Rutgers University where she served as Department Chair. Steiner is past president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). She worked for a small newspaper in upstate New York before going to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she earned her Ph.D.

The University of Maryland ADVANCE Program began in 2010 as a five-year, NSF-funded campus-wide project promoting institutional transformation with respect to the retention and advancement of women faculty on the tenure track. ADVANCE expanded to consider ways to improve work environments for all faculty members. For more information on ADVANCE, visit https://www.advance.umd.edu/.

“We are excited to welcome ADVANCE into the Office of Faculty Affairs, and particularly pleased that Linda will be the Director. Linda brings the expertise and vision to lead ADVANCE as it continues to provide critical supports to our faculty,” said Senior Vice President and Provost Mary Ann Rankin.