2024 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Staff Award for Effectiveness and Efficiency
Margo Young, Director, Earth and Space Research Administration
Margo began her career at UMBC in 2007 and quickly progressed in her responsibilities, serving first as business manager, then assistant director, and associate director of the JCET and two other research centers: the Center for Space Sciences and Technology and the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute. In 2019, Margo initiated and led a major administrative transformation to develop an independent shared services center called Earth and Space Research Administration (ESRA), supporting roughly 230 scientists in three research centers and one institutional center. Her exceptional vision in developing ESRA, nurturing UMBC’s important relationship with NASA, and her outstanding work as a leader in UMBC’s vital program of research administration greatly contributed to naming UMBC as an R1 university. Margo’s administrative decisions and knowledge on how they impact science and creative activities are declared “unmatched” by her colleagues, and efficiency projects such as DocuSign, Procurement, and Travel System, which Margo was instrumental in launching, result in multimillion cost savings.