Jarrell Slade

Associate Director in Pre-College Programs

Jarrell has been appointed as TerrapinSTRONG Partner of the Office of Belonging & Community in Undergraduate Studies. In this role, Jarrell will continue to lead training sessions and workshops, working to ensure our programs and initiatives respond to the experiences of our community. He will convene and lead the UGST THRIVE committee to develop and implement workshops and training sessions that contribute to our community's sense of belonging. He will work with our programs to support efforts in the areas of communication, recruitment and retention, programming, and assessment. He will represent UGST in university-wide initiatives, and he will serve as an advisor to Dean Cohen.

Jackie Kautzer

Director of Administration in the Office of Undergraduate Studies

Jackie Kautzer is the Equal Opportunity Partner for the Office of Undergraduate Studies. Her responsibilities include managing the Dean's schedule, event and meeting planning, facilities issues, annual awards and scholarships, other special projects including the Merrill Scholars Program. Before joining UGST, Ms. Kautzer held positions in the Smith School of Business and the College of Arts and Humanities. She has a BA from New York University, an MFA from the University of Maryland, and an MLS from the University of Maryland.

Leeanne Dunsmore

Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Studies

Dr. Leeanne Dunsmore is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Office of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Maryland. In this role she oversees the Carillon Living-Learning program, the First Year Book program, and the UGST-wide orientation and professional development program aligned with TerrapinSTRONG. She received her B.A. in international relations and business from the College of Wooster, her M.A. in international political economy from American University and a Doctorate in Global Education from the University of Southern California.

2025 UGST Retreat: By connecting with the First Year Book Poverty, By America, UGST staff and faculty will engage in discussion and activities that deepen our understanding of poverty, explore its impact on our students, and develop strategies for becoming poverty abolitionists.

2024 UGST Retreat: Smashing Statues: Transcending Our Past
By connecting with the First Year Book, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments by Erin L. Thompson, UGST faculty and staff considered how our various histories, identities, and cultures connect and sometimes divide us. By actively discussing national and local controversies over monuments, we reflected on intersections of identity and learned more about ourselves and one another.
Keynote speaker: Dr. Tess Korobkin

2023 UGST Retreat: Access, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education examined the case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding race-based admissions in higher education. We considered how it might impact UGST's mission to provide opportunities, broaden access, and enhance lives. Participants engaged in interactive activities to help us assess and reinforce our commitment to nurturing a welcoming and diverse campus community. Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Alexander Williams, Jr.

2022 UGST Retreat: Dismantling Structural Racism advanced our efforts to raise awareness of structural inequities and their impact in the workplace and to challenge our cultural norms and institutional practices. Jointly, we explored how our action and inaction may exacerbate, enable, or remedy systemic inequities of access to resources and opportunities to advance and succeed in the workplace.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Rashawn Ray

2021 UGST Retreat: Leadership Through Humility & Dignity
Our theme, "Dismantling Structural Racism," advances our efforts to raise awareness of structural inequities and their impact in the workplace and to challenge our cultural norms and institutional practices. Jointly, we will explore how our action and inaction may exacerbate, enable, or remedy systemic inequities of access to resources and opportunities to advance and succeed in the workplace.

2020 UGST Retreat: Making Work Work: Advancing Inclusion and Enhancing Well Being
To encourage personal reflections to understand the factors that affect individual well-being, professional relationships, and social interactions. Identifying our authentic self, the origins of our belief systems, and conscious and unconscious biases may provide guidance on how to enter into healthy relationships that are attuned to inclusive attitudes and behaviors. Today’s activities and presentations will provide strategies to foster effective personal and interpersonal relationships that will advance inclusion and enhance wellbeing in the workplace and beyond.

2019 UGST Retreat: Belonging: Connections and Challenges

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The land acknowledgment we use was organized by Ghonva Ghauri from MICA and approved by Piscataway elders. If you'd like to use the land acknowledgment below for your own office/school/group, please feel free, but we ask that you not change any of the words aside from the office/unit name, as this was the exact language that was approved by Piscataway Tribe elders.

Land Acknowledgment
Every community owes its existence and strength to the generations before them, around the world, who contributed their hopes, dreams, and energy into making the history that led to this moment. Some were brought here against their will, some were drawn to migrate from their homes in hope of a better life, and some have lived on this land for more generations than can be counted. Truth and acknowledgment are critical in building mutual respect and connections across all barriers of heritage and difference.

We believe it is important to create dialogue to honor those that have been historically and systemically disenfranchised. So, we acknowledge the truth that is often buried: We are on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway People, who were among the first in the Western Hemisphere. We are on indigenous land that was stolen from the Piscataway People by European colonists. We pay respects to Piscataway elders and ancestors. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together here today.