Patrice McDermott

Dr. McDermott currently serves as vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. McDermott joined the UMBC faculty in 1993 as a member of the American Studies Department where she served as chair before joining the campus administration in 2007 to work with the president on institutional change initiatives. Within that capacity, she also served as lead Co-PI of the NSF-funded ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant and established the UMBC Office of Faculty Diversity Initiatives. As vice provost for faculty affairs, Dr. McDermott continues to oversee a wide range of institutional change projects including the Gates Foundation t-STEM Partnership and the NSF Innovation through Institutional Integration Grant. She also serves as senior scholar at AAC&U-PKAL where she works on issues related to recruiting, advancing and retaining URM women faculty in STEM. Dr. McDermott received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park. Her research and publications focus on gender and minority issues within contemporary American political culture, and the use of social institutions as effective sites for social change. She was the recipient of the UMBC Presidential Women’s Achievement Award and the National Women’s Studies Association Book Award. She consults nationally for NSF ADVANCE and related initiatives.