UMD Names Steve Fetter Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

The University of Maryland has named Steve Fetter as Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, effective June 1, 2018. As Dean, Fetter will lead the Graduate School’s mission to advance graduate education and enhance the graduate student experience at UMD by working closely with staff of the university’s more than 230 graduate programs.

“Steve has served as graduate dean ad interim since last October and I am extremely pleased that he has agreed to continue in the job on a permanent basis,” says UMD Senior Vice President and Provost Mary Ann Rankin. “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.”

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. 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 academic year. He has served as interim dean for the Graduate School since October 2017.

“It has been a pleasure working with Graduate School staff, as well as faculty and students from all over campus these past eight months. I am honored to accept the position as Dean of the Graduate School and work hand-in-hand with our staff to foster collaboration and partnerships that lead to graduate student success,” says Fetter.

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.

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.