Distinguished University Professors

The title of Distinguished University Professor is the highest appointment bestowed on a faculty member at UMB. It is a recognition not just of excellence, but also of impact and significant contribution to the nominee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice.

Here are the 2024 Distinguished University Professors:

Richard Boldt, JD

Richard Boldt, JD

T. Carroll Brown Professor of Law
U
niversity of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Bio:  
Richard Boldt has been a passionate and dedicated legal educator for more than three decades, having joined the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 1989.

He was granted tenure in 1993, promoted to professor of law in 1999, and appointed as the T. Carroll Brown Professor of Law in 2016.

During his time at Maryland Carey Law, Professor Boldt has received numerous teaching awards and is widely recognized by current and former colleagues, students, and peers at other law schools as one of the best legal educators and scholars in the country.

Boldt’s teaching abilities and command of diverse areas of law have touched virtually every aspect of the Maryland Carey Law curriculum. He has taught core first-year subjects such as criminal law, torts, and constitutional law, plus a wide range of upper-level courses and seminars including federal jurisdiction, criminal procedure, constitutional interpretation, and mental disability law.

His work has been published in leading law journals including the Maryland Law Review, Journal of Health Care Law & Policy, Washington University Law Quarterly, Criminal Justice Ethics, Michigan Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Boldt received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College and earned his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review. After practicing at the Legal Action Center, a public interest law firm in New York, he began his academic career at Northern Illinois University College of Law.

He also held a faculty position at City University of New York Law School and was a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School. He served as associate dean of Maryland Carey Law from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2017. In 2022, he was recognized as the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Educator of the Year.

Susan G. Dorsey, PhD, RN, FAAN

Susan G. Dorsey, PhD, RN, FAAN

Professor, Department of Organizational Systems and Adult Health
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Professor, Departments of Anesthesiology and Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Professor, Department of Neural and Pain Sciences
University of Maryland School of Dentistry

Bio:  
Susan Dorsey is nationally and internationally recognized for her research and scholarship studying chronic pain and cancer treatment-related symptoms.

She joined the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) in 2004 and served as founding chair of its Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science from 2014 to 2022.

Dr. Dorsey also is founding co-director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Center to Advance Chronic Pain Research (CACPR), which then-UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, requested be formed in 2012. Dorsey assembled a leadership team and secured a National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) P30 Center grant. The mission of CACPR, the first non-school-based, Universitywide research center at UMB, is to cultivate and expand cutting-edge multidisciplinary pain research with a team of nationally and internationally renowned clinical and preclinical transitional scientists. Dorsey stepped down as co-director in 2022.

Dorsey’s work has led to new discoveries in the characterization and validation of biomarkers of the transition from acute to chronic pain across numerous conditions. She is collaborating with interdisciplinary colleagues in the schools of medicine and pharmacy on early drug discovery efforts for a novel, non-opioid therapeutic target that she and her team identified as having a critical role in the formation of persistent pain, the BDNF receptor trB.T1. Other studies include identification of new non-addictive therapeutic targets to better manage pain in both preclinical and clinical models using multiomics methods.

She has a deep commitment to teaching and mentoring the next generation of scientists. 

Dorsey’s research has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), receiving more than $30 million as principal investigator or multiple-principal investigator. Currently, she has over $9 million in NIH funding through four active grants and an NIH contract.

Dorsey has a significant record of publication in journals including Pain, PLOS Genetics, Journal of Neuroscience, Nursing Research, and Science Signaling. She is the co-editor of the 2020 book “Genomics of Pain and Co-Morbid Symptoms.”

Dorsey has been recognized by her peers with her induction as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (2011) and the prestigious Friends of the NINR Welch/Woerner Path-Paver Award (2019) for mentorship. In 2015, she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Researcher Hall of Fame for the International Honor Society of Nursing.

She earned her PhD and MS from UMSON and her undergraduate degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Steven Kittner, MD, MPH

Steven Kittner, MD, MPH

Professor, Department of Neurology
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Bio:  
Steven Kittner is an internationally recognized expert in stroke and cerebrovascular disease who has helped thousands of patients clinically and by leading regional and international collaborations to understand the causes of stroke.

Dr. Kittner joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1988. His work as a Maryland Stroke Center member examined traditional and emerging stroke risk factors, including genetic risk factors, and the contribution of these risk factors to the excess burden of stroke in African Americans.

He developed a working group of regional neurologists interested in stroke in the young, the Young Stroke Study Group, that supported his groundbreaking Baltimore-Washington Cooperative Young Stroke Study. Kittner obtained Institutional Review Board approval and waivers from all 46 Baltimore-Washington regional acute and rehab hospitals. This population-based dataset on all strokes in patients younger than age 45 allowed for the first accurate estimation of the risk of stroke during pregnancy and highlighted the tremendous increased risk of stroke in the postpartum period.

Continuing with this regional collaboration, Kittner went on to develop regional case control studies of stroke in young adults that included collection of DNA for studies of genetic risk factors for stroke. Subsequently, he recognized that the field of stroke genetics would not make progress without international collaboration, and, in 2007, he was one of the 16 founding members of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium. He led the first National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded genome-wide study of stroke, the Stroke Genetics Network from 2009 to 2016, and the international Genetics of Early-Onset Ischemic Stroke Consortium from 2018 to 2022.

He has received continuous grant support over the last three decades from the NIH, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Kittner has co-authored more than 175 peer-reviewed manuscripts, chapters, and reviews, and he has been published in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and Annals of Neurology. In 2007, he received AHA’s David Gibbons Memorial Research Award.

Kittner earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, and his undergraduate degree from Brown University.

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA

CARTI Endowed Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Director, Center for Advanced Research Training and Innovation (CARTI); Senior Scientist, Center for Birth Defects Research
University of Maryland School of Medicine
*Will be honored at the 2025 Convocation

Bio:  
E. Albert Reece is an internationally recognized physician-scientist, scholar, distinguished leader, and sought-after visiting professor who recently completed a transformational 16-year tenure as dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and executive vice president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

Dr. Reece led UMSOM through a period of exponential growth and achievements across all areas of its operation, enabling the school to reach major milestones in research, clinical care, reputation, and global impact. He also presided over dramatic growth of an academic enterprise that now totals 45 academic units, including 25 departments and 20 research centers, institutes, and programs, with UMSOM rising to the top tier of all medical schools and ranked in the top 10 among public medical schools.

In addition, he launched an overhaul of the medical education curriculum, now called the Renaissance Curriculum, which takes a systems-based, holistic approach to learning, combining instruction in both the health and disease processes of the body related to major organ systems.

During his deanship, Reece remained active in his National Institutes of Health multimillion-dollar research laboratory group, studying the biomolecular mechanisms of diabetes-induced birth defects, and making a number of discoveries for which he holds multiple patents. This laboratory was transitioned to become the Center for Birth Defects Research.

As the director of CARTI, he leads a diversified research training and research professional development center for all faculty and senior fellows across UMSOM and other UMB schools as well. CARTI has become an institutional hub for supporting the pursuit of federal grant funding by all faculty.

Reece is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine and has served on its Governing Council, Executive Committee, and, most recently, as Scholar-in-Residence. He also has served on many medical, governmental, and civic organizations and committees, and he currently sits on the board of Research America, the Lasker Foundation, and others.

He has published extensively in scientific literature — 12 books including revisions and more than 500 scientific publications. Reece also has received numerous awards, citations, and honorary degrees from universities and government organizations in recognition of his distinguished leadership, lifetime achievement, and major contributions to science and medicine.

Reece earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University, a medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine, a PhD in biochemistry from the University of the West Indies, and an MBA from the Fox School of Business and Management of Temple University.

William Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, FASTRO

William Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, FASTRO

Professor and Isadore & Fannie Schneider Foxman Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Bio:  
William Regine is an internationally renowned physician-scientist who is a leader in the field of radiation oncology and an expert in the areas of gastrointestinal (GI) and central nervous system (CNS) malignancies.

Dr. Regine has served as principal investigator for multiple National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trials, many of which have helped redefine new standards of care for GI and CNS cancer patients. He has chaired the School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Department of Radiation Oncology since 2003. The department, which has pioneered radiation treatment in cancer, has achieved a top-five national ranking in National Institutes of Health research funding.

As senior associate dean for clinical affairs, Regine serves as UMSOM’s chief physician, overseeing clinical care, business, and other matters related to the school’s clinical faculty. He also is the executive director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) and president of University of Maryland Faculty Physicians, Inc. (FPI).

At MPTC, he leads the most advanced facility of its kind in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., region, providing nearly 2,000 cancer patients a year with precise “pencil-beam” technology to treat solid tumors. With FPI, he spearheads strategic efforts in financial growth and success for this organization, which is made up of more than 1,200 UMSOM faculty members who provide care to more than 1.5 million outpatients and inpatients every year.

Regine is the co-editor of “Principles and Practices of Stereotactic Radiosurgery,” the first comprehensive textbook of its kind, and has written more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He also is the co-inventor of the first-of-its-kind treatment device completely dedicated to the stereotactic radiation treatment of early stage breast cancer, known as the GammaPod.

Among his many accolades, Regine was the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016 and received The Daily Record Health Care Heroes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and the American Cancer Society’s MileOne Visionary Award in 2021.  

He earned his bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany and his medical degree from the SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse. His radiation oncology training occurred at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

David Weber, PhD

David Weber, PhD

Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Director, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Co-Director, University of Maryland Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research

Bio:  
David Weber is an internationally renowned biochemist and structural biologist who has been with the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) since 1993.

He also holds a joint appointment as a professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).

Dr. Weber’s achievements as a scientist, educator, and leader have dramatically enriched the research environments of UMSOM, the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT), and the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.

As director of CBT, Weber manages state-of-the-art scientific studies that investigate mechanisms involved in disease states and develops drugs to treat them. This includes leading the way to investigate structure and dynamic properties of biomolecules at atomic resolution, which included being principal investigator for a $7.9 million grant to acquire a superconducting, 950-megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. He is generous with his expertise and has helped researchers at UMSOM and beyond to better understand such biomolecules, their mechanism of action, and used this information to develop new agents to treat human diseases including for infectious diseases and cancer.

Weber also is co-director of the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, a unique collaboration among the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB); UMCP; and the National Institute of Standards and Technology that breaks down traditional silos between academia, government, and industry to advance pioneering research and development in medicine, biosciences, technology, quantitative sciences, and engineering.

At UMSOM, Weber served as director of graduate education for the joint program in biochemistry and molecular biology from 2001 to 2011. He is an editorial board member for numerous journals and has authored more than 150 research articles and book chapters involving basic science and biomedical therapeutics advances.

Among his many accolades, he was named an MPower Professor in 2022 by the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State. The professorship recognizes, enables, and supports strong collaborations between faculty in the UMB-UMCP joint research enterprise.

Weber earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Muhlenberg College and his PhD in chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.