Author Profile
Amy Stevens | Chief Academic Officer, University of Maryland Global Campus
Current Position and Past Experience
Amy Stevens is the Chief Academic Officer of the University of Maryland Global Campus. In this role, she leads academic strategy for one of the nation’s largest public universities, with a focus on academic quality, workforce relevance, organizational transformation, and scale. She is particularly interested in designing academic structures around the evolving needs of learners and the realities of their lives.
Before returning to UMGC, Stevens served in several leadership roles at Northeastern University, including Vice Chancellor for Global Experiential Pathways and Associate Vice Chancellor for Product and Program Implementation. She joined Northeastern in 2022 as part of its Educational Innovation team, where she worked across institutional boundaries to rethink learning, credentials, and the global student experience. She previously served as Special Advisor to the President at UMGC.
Stevens spent close to a decade at Southern New Hampshire University, joining the university in 2011 and holding progressively senior roles in academic resources, technology, communication, e-learning, and competency-based education. Earlier in her career, she worked in web communications at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and held a range of financial services consulting positions.
Education, Honors, and Achievements
Stevens holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Women’s Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and did doctoral work in History from Boston College, where she studied social protest movements. She also earned a Master of Arts in Teaching and Technology from Marlboro College Graduate Center and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
Her interdisciplinary academic background combines American intellectual history, educational technology, and creative writing. She describes these fields as complementary: history informs her understanding of how institutions develop, technology helps her envision new possibilities, and storytelling helps her bring people together around change.
In addition to her academic and higher education leadership work, Stevens is a published novelist, an award-winning knitter, and a world travelor. Her professional philosophy emphasizes rigor, relevance, access, affordability, and academic excellence, alongside a strong commitment to challenging unnecessary complexity and making transformation meaningful for the people who experience it.
Personal Details and Community Involvement
Stevens is an advocate for learner-centered higher education and believes that academic transformation should ultimately make work and learning better for real people. She brings an unconventional blend of historical perspective, technological fluency, creative practice, and organizational leadership to her work in higher education.
She describes herself as “a pirate in the navy” and an enthusiastic challenger of unnecessary complexity. Her interests outside higher education include reading, writing, and the unending pursuit of joy. Through her professional leadership and broader interests, she reflects a commitment to creativity, accessibility, continuous improvement, and building institutions around the needs of the communities they serve.
Amy Stevens is the Chief Academic Officer of the University of Maryland Global Campus. In this role, she leads academic strategy for one of the nation’s largest public universities, with a focus on academic quality, workforce relevance, organizational transformation, and scale. She is particularly interested in designing academic structures around the evolving needs of learners and the realities of their lives.
Before returning to UMGC, Stevens served in several leadership roles at Northeastern University, including Vice Chancellor for Global Experiential Pathways and Associate Vice Chancellor for Product and Program Implementation. She joined Northeastern in 2022 as part of its Educational Innovation team, where she worked across institutional boundaries to rethink learning, credentials, and the global student experience. She previously served as Special Advisor to the President at UMGC.
Stevens spent close to a decade at Southern New Hampshire University, joining the university in 2011 and holding progressively senior roles in academic resources, technology, communication, e-learning, and competency-based education. Earlier in her career, she worked in web communications at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and held a range of financial services consulting positions.
Education, Honors, and Achievements
Stevens holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Women’s Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and did doctoral work in History from Boston College, where she studied social protest movements. She also earned a Master of Arts in Teaching and Technology from Marlboro College Graduate Center and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
Her interdisciplinary academic background combines American intellectual history, educational technology, and creative writing. She describes these fields as complementary: history informs her understanding of how institutions develop, technology helps her envision new possibilities, and storytelling helps her bring people together around change.
In addition to her academic and higher education leadership work, Stevens is a published novelist, an award-winning knitter, and a world travelor. Her professional philosophy emphasizes rigor, relevance, access, affordability, and academic excellence, alongside a strong commitment to challenging unnecessary complexity and making transformation meaningful for the people who experience it.
Personal Details and Community Involvement
Stevens is an advocate for learner-centered higher education and believes that academic transformation should ultimately make work and learning better for real people. She brings an unconventional blend of historical perspective, technological fluency, creative practice, and organizational leadership to her work in higher education.
She describes herself as “a pirate in the navy” and an enthusiastic challenger of unnecessary complexity. Her interests outside higher education include reading, writing, and the unending pursuit of joy. Through her professional leadership and broader interests, she reflects a commitment to creativity, accessibility, continuous improvement, and building institutions around the needs of the communities they serve.
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