Vice Provost for Professional & Extended Studies
Division of Professional Studies & The Shriver Center
Chris Steele is vice provost for Professional & Extended Studies at UMBC, where he leads high impact workforce development and community-engaged programs in The Shriver Center and The Division of Professional Studies. He and his colleagues place partnership and stewardship as the cornerstones of their work to enhance economic prosperity, social mobility, and social justice. As a leader, he aspires to lead with the heart of a servant leader and the hands of an adaptive leader.
Steele joined the UMBC community in 1996 as a research associate in the Department of Geography & Environmental Systems (GES) and The Parks & People Foundation. In this role, he worked on NASA and NSF funded research programs, including the Baltimore Ecosystem Study – which remains in operation to the present day. As an affiliate Associate professor, Steele has taught undergraduate geography courses in the GES department since 1999.
In 2000, Steele joined UMBC’s Division of Professional Studies (DPS) as the director of program development. Advancing through several positions, Steele was appointed vice provost overseeing DPS and The Shriver Center in 2015. For nearly 25 years, he has collaborated with virtually every academic and administrative unit at UMBC to develop innovative approaches to reaching new student audiences through new and/or enhanced programs. Steele has been an instrumental leader in: the development of UMBC’s institutional presence at The Universities at Shady Grove; the development of more than a dozen applied master’s programs in engineering, information technology, psychology, life sciences, and education; and the founding and development of UMBC’s Institute of Extended Learning (IXL). Steele has overseen the growth and development of The Shriver Center as a principal bridge between UMBC and various local, regional, and international communities.
Steele holds a BA in Geography from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA in Geography from Binghamton University, and a PhD in Geography from The University of Maryland. He has studied Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University. Steele is a program alumnus of the Management Development Program (2010) and The Institute of Education Management (2019) at The Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is also an alumnus of the 2016 class of The Greater Baltimore Committee LEADERship program.
Steele is a veteran of the Army National Guard. He is an avid strength training athlete and coach. Chris and his wife Karen live in Baltimore and have two young-adult children.