University of Maryland, Baltimore President Named USM Chancellor

The University System of Maryland made the following announcement last night:

University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, M.D., has been named the next chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) by the USM Board of Regents. Perman will become the fifth chancellor of the USM when he succeeds Robert L. Caret, who previously announced he will leave the position by the end of his contract.

A nationally recognized pediatric gastroenterologist, Perman has been president since 2010 at UMB, where he has worked to strengthen that institution’s ties to the city of Baltimore and enhance economic development and the health and well-being of its closest neighbors. Over his time at UMB, Perman has also been a national leader in higher education on issues including accreditation, ethics and integrity, community engagement, affordability and access, diversity and inclusion, and interprofessional education.  

In 2014, he established the Office of Community Engagement to coordinate UMB’s varied outreach projects—with special emphasis on West Baltimore—and to leverage resources so that the university may respond quickly and effectively to identified community needs. In fall 2015, Perman opened the UMB Community Engagement Center in West Baltimore and expanded it earlier this year in ways to provide direct health, employment, legal, financial and social services to nearby residents and to engage with them in neighborhood-strengthening advocacy projects.

Perman has also focused on economic development and innovation in Baltimore, and as UMB president expanded the reach and influence of the UMB BioPark, a biomedical research park adjacent to the UMB campus and due west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that provides a community for life science companies and academic research centers that are commercializing new drugs, diagnostics and devices and advancing biomedical research.

Beyond Baltimore, Perman’s leadership has improved the state and regional economy. With Wallace D. Loh, president of the University of Maryland, College Park, Perman leads the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower), a collaboration between the state of Maryland’s two most powerful public research institutions that leverages the sizable strengths and complementary missions of both institutions to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, create opportunities for students, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation.

Perman has worked on statewide issues with a number of USM institutional partners. He led the Maryland Healthcare Workforce Working Group, a two-year effort to examine and strengthen the health-care workforce in Maryland. The group included the presidents of Salisbury University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Frostburg University, University of Baltimore and Coppin State University and produced a report examining the USM’s response to the state’s health-care workforce demand and education. Perman has also been instrumental in expanding academic programs at the Universities at Shady Grove, including that center’s new BSE building, which will bring a significant placement of dentistry and oral health sciences and dental education to Montgomery County, including a dental community clinic to the region. His work also included leadership of the Eastern Shore Center for Interprofessional Education (ESCIPE), which has led to improvements in healthcare training on Delmarva—work that involved Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Perman has also positioned the work of UMB globally—its Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health and its Institute of Human Virology have worked domestically and internationally to develop, test and deploy vaccines to aid the world’s underserved populations. This includes the treatment of HIV/AIDS and other chronic viral diseases, such as Hepatitis B and C and Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

“In our search for a new USM chancellor, we were looking for a nationally recognized leader—ideally someone who had run a large and complex institution, an innovator committed to economic growth and development—but above all a person with a passion for education and committed to shared governance, transparency, and diversity. Fortunately for us that we found all of those things right in our own backyard,” said USM Board Chair Linda Gooden. “Jay Perman embodies these attributes. He is warmly regarded by his fellow USM presidents and greatly respected in Annapolis. I know I speak for every regent in saying we are delighted that he has agreed to take on this new and important challenge. And I also know that every regent would like to thank Chancellor Caret for his service to the USM.”

“I am deeply humbled to be called to this responsibility,” Perman said. “It will be a privilege to work as chancellor with our outstanding USM institutions to ensure that Marylanders—today and tomorrow—have the opportunities I was so fortunate to be given in gaining a higher education.”

Leaders throughout Maryland were quick to praise Perman’s appointment.

“Jay has served with distinction as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and has a strong record of empowering students and communities,” said Gov. Larry Hogan. “A dedicated educator and civil servant, Jay is the right choice for this critical position, and I look forward to working with him to continue advancing our world-renowned university system.”

“Dr. Perman and I have worked together for many years on education issues, and I have always found him to have a collaborative approach, which is critically important at this time of transition for the university system,” said Speaker Adrienne A. Jones. “Dr. Perman is a stabilizing force, and I look forward to working closely with him to maintain college affordability and improve partnerships and programming to prepare our students for this global economy.”

“Dr. Jay Perman is an excellent choice to become the USM’s next chancellor,” said Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller. “He is a proven commodity and is highly regarded by the Maryland Senate. We look forward to working with Dr. Perman in this exciting new role and wish him great success.”

Perman’s appointment as president of UMB in 2010 marked a return to the campus. He chaired the Department of Pediatrics in the university’s School of Medicine (1999–2004), before leaving to serve as dean and vice president for clinical affairs at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine (2004–10).

Perman received a Doctor of Medicine degree with Distinction in 1972 from Northwestern University. After his residency in pediatrics at Northwestern University Children’s Memorial Hospital (1975), he completed a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at Harvard Medical School and at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston (1977).

From 1977 to 1984, Perman was an assistant professor and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. He first came to Baltimore to work at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1984–96), serving as a professor of pediatrics and head of several divisions. Perman was then named the Jessie Ball duPont Professor and Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia (1996–99).

Perman’s career includes service on many national and regional boards and committees, including Chair of the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board, as well as the boards of the Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Deans, the Children’s Cancer Foundation, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He is immediate past chair of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.  Perman has also been active on issues involving specialized and regional accreditation—serving as chair of several Middle States review teams—and has played an active role in governance issues as chair of the USM Council of University System Presidents for the past four years.

Perman is a past president of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, a former section chair of the American Gastroenterological Association, and a former executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has been listed among “The Best Doctors in America” since 2001.

A native of Chicago, Perman and his wife, Andrea, a research nurse, have four adult children and nine grandchildren and reside in Baltimore.

Perman's appointment follows a four-month, national search led by a 16-member search committee that was co-chaired by Regents Chair Gooden and Vice Chair Barry Gossett. Witt/Kieffer, an executive search firm, assisted the search committee in its work.