October 1, 2024


Dear School of Medicine Community,


I want to start by thanking everyone for attending the 2024 State of the School Address – almost 800 of you showed up in person and online, and it was great to see so many faculty, students, staff, leaders, partners, board members, and friends together in the same space. We even had special guests from our presentation join us, including Baltimore City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter. If you missed it, I encourage you to watch online here. Thanks for all your hard work over the past year – our success as an institution is because of YOU and I look forward to working together to achieve even greater results next year!


One of the new initiatives I talked about in the State of the School was the research incentive program, designed to encourage faculty to grow the School of Medicine’s portfolio of extramural funding. I want to thank everyone for their hard work in developing and implementing the program and President Jarrell and his UMB leadership team for their support of this new School of Medicine program. I sent an earlier message to all faculty with more details, so check your inboxes if you haven’t seen it yet and review the detailed policy document and FAQs here.

I also shared and want to congratulate Jacques Ravel, PhD for his new role of Director of the new Center for Advanced Microbiome Research and Innovation within the Institute for Genome Sciences, which will serve as a hub for pioneering discoveries and innovations to translate microbiome science into tangible health solutions. I look forward to his vision and continued success! Congratulations are also in order for Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, for her new leadership role. Dr. Lobo will serve as the new Associate Director for Basic and Translational Science for the Kahlert Institute of Addiction Medicine under Kelly Dunn, PhD, MBA, who I announced last month as the Institute’s new Director. 

I want to commend Kimberly Lumpkins, MD, MBA, who was one of the three faculty speakers at President Jarrell’s third annual Convocation that welcomed the campus’ faculty to the new academic year last month. She gave an inspiring and engaging talk about accepting failure as an important part of the growth process, a lesson we could all learn from. I also want to again congratulate several of our faculty who were honored as Distinguished University Professors at this event: William Regine, MD; Steven Kittner, MD, MPH; and David Weber, PhD. 

I want to ensure you know about the upcoming Ritmo y Raices – Hispanic Heritage Cultural Showcase, which will take place next Tuesday, October 8 from 6-9 p.m. at the M&T Bank Exchange in the Hippodrome. This event promises food, dance, and celebration, and I look forward to sharing in the cultural excitement with you all! Please do your best to attend, bring a Spanish-speaking friend, and register here.


I hope to see many of you around campus soon!

With enthusiasm and commitment,

Mark T. Gladwin, MD (He/him/his)

Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore

John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean