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Honorees expound on Respect and Integrity, Well-Being and Sustainability, Equity and Justice, and Innovation and Discovery.
Each year, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) recognizes an Entrepreneur, Researcher, Public Servant, Educator, and Student of the Year during Founders Week.
This year, we asked the award winners which UMB core values set means the most to them: Respect and Integrity, Well-Being and Sustainability, Equity and Justice, or Innovation and Discovery. Here’s what they said:
“Well-Being and Sustainability stand out the most because they are deeply intertwined with all the core values. Sustainability not only applies to environmental stewardship, but also to fostering social and economic well-being for all, meaning a commitment to equity and justice. The progression of well-being and sustainability cannot be achieved without collaboration, innovation, and discovery, which are co-dependent on respect and integrity.”
— Aishwarya Iyer, Student of the Year
“As a researcher, Innovation and Discovery means the most since it motivated me to pursue the career of dentist-scientist, and I believe it advances medical care.”
— Man-Kyo Chung, DMD, PhD, Researcher of the Year
“All of UMB’s core values are important to me. They reinforce each other. They operate as a system of values that together mark out the kind of institution I’m proud to be a part of.”
— Richard Boldt, JD, Educator of the Year
“This is a difficult question, because all of the UMB core values are so closely linked to my work, but I will have to say Equity and Justice. At this pivotal moment where inequities have been illuminated during the COVID-19 pandemic, many more people see how injustice in one population impacts society overall.
“There is also a great need to advance innovation and discovery in the area of health equity, so the UMB core value of Innovation and Discovery also resonates with me. I believe that UMB has the potential to advance and shift the trajectory on health equity through new discoveries and innovation in research and social care.”
— Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD, CRNP-Neonatal, FNAP, FAAN, Public Servant of the Year
“Of course, all of the core values are meaningful, but if asked to choose one, I’d have to pick Respect and Integrity since I think that these values are foundational to engaged citizenship in an academic community — the most meaningful elements of my professional life come from my UMB citizenship, in the classical sense.”
— Allan Doctor, MD, David J. Ramsay Entrepreneur of the Year
(In photo, clockwise from top left: Allan Doctor, Man-Kyo Chung, Yolanda Ogbolu, Aishwarya Iyer, and Richard Boldt.)