President's Testimony

Faculty Entrepreneurship and the Economy

• We have literally hundreds of faculty doing outstanding work in areas like transplant surgery, oncology, pain management, law and entrepreneurship, child welfare, nanomedicine.  I would like to highlight just two key areas.
  
  

• Last year I introduced the committee to Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett, the Director of our world-class Institute in Genome Sciences.  She, her husband Steve Liggett, a specialist in cardiopulmonary genomics, together with Alan Shuldiner, the Director of our Center for the Genetics and Genomics of Complex Diseases and Bob Gallo, Director of the Institute for Human Virology and their respective colleagues formed the nucleus of our cutting edge group in Personalized Medicine.  I am delighted to report to you that they have attracted Curt Civin, one of the world's best known researchers in stem cell and regenerative medicine. Dr. Civin joined our faculty last week.  I mention this in particular because even in a time of severely constrained fiscal resources, investments in key faculty continue to pay large dividends.  This group of faculty is expected to generate nearly $100 million in sponsored research this fiscal year.
  
  

• The 20 faculty and 200 students of the School of Law’s nationally recognized Clinical Law Program provide approximately 110,000 hours of free legal services to the residents of Maryland each year.   The equivalent of about sixty full-time attorneys, the Law School clinic is one of the largest public interest law offices in the state.  Since its founding 35 years ago, the Program has expanded its practice to virtually every area of law -- health care, environmental law, public benefits, education, HIV/AIDs, community development and more.  The current economic crisis has created increased demand for the clinic’s services, especially in the areas of access to public benefits, and consumer and mortgage debt.  Meeting these expanding needs and maintaining this level of excellence require substantial resources.  We have successfully pursued private individual philanthropy, foundation support, and federal grant programs.
  
  

• As I mentioned earlier in my testimony UMB is second only to Hopkins as a major employer in Baltimore City.  With this status comes a special responsibility to reach out to city residents and provide training opportunities to work in our facilities management and housekeeping programs.  I am delighted to report that later this month Maryland Works will honor UMB as Employer of the Year.  This recognition comes from a project that we have in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools and the ARC of Maryland to provide internships for special education students from the City who are aging out of their academic programs.  These students are painting the walls of our parking garages, sorting tickets, shelving library materials, learning animal care and many other jobs without which our education, research and clinical care programs could not operate.

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