Retirement Celebration for Dr. Kathy Sutphin

Dear Members of the CNMS community,

Kathy Lee Sutphin, the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of College Initiatives in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, will retire at the end of December. The UMBC community is cordially invited to a virtual Retirement Celebration to be held in her honor on Friday, December 18, 2020 from 4 – 5 p.m. on WebEx.

Kathy first started working at UMBC in November 1995 after graduating summa cum laude from UMBC that May with a degree in Political Science and a Certificate in Public Administration and Policy. She started a third career at UMBC in the Department of Biological Sciences to coordinate special projects after working as a journalist and columnist for the Gazette Newspapers and the Baltimore Sun. Her writing experience was put to good use as she worked with Dr. Lasse Lindahl and many others on successful proposals that included starting the NIH-funded Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC U*STAR) Program at UMBC and securing NSF support for the renovation of UMBC’s oldest academic building. She tapped her experience in managing construction offices, her first career, when she worked with other staff to coordinate the extensive renovation of the Biological Sciences Building from 1996 to 2001.

Dr. Geoff Summers invited Kathy to join the staff of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences as an Assistant Dean when CNMS was formed in 2005. Over the past 15 years, she has worked with the three CNMS Deans—Dr. Summers, Dr. Philip Rous, and Dr. William LaCourse—to administer a variety of initiatives. These have included the Evaluation, Integration and Institutionalization of Initiatives to Enhance STEM Success (iCubed@UMBC) funded by NSF, STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative (t-STEM) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Experiment in Undergraduate Science Education (NEXUS) funded by HHMI, and STEM BUILD at UMBC funded by NIH.

During the past 25 years, Kathy has benefited from the support of many UMBC colleagues and is grateful for the many friendships and opportunities that UMBC has afforded. She completed an MBA in 2005 and a doctorate in Educational Leadership (Higher Education focus) in 2018, both from Frostburg State University. Through the years, Kathy has treasured opportunities to work directly with students and began a Post-Master’s Certificate in College Teaching and Learning Science at UMBC this fall. In retirement, she plans to teach part time and pursue her hobbies in painting and writing. She also plans to spend more time with family members and enjoy their home near Bethany Beach, Delaware.

If you would like to share a congratulatory message with Kathy, please post to her Kudoboard.

Sincerely,

Dean William R. LaCourse