The University of Maryland appointed a new dean for the behavioral and social sciences college, according to an email sent to the campus community Thursday. Dr. Susan Rivera will start as the college’s new dean on Aug. 1, the email read.
Rivera will replace Dr. Wayne McIntosh, a faculty member at the behavioral and social sciences college who has served as its interim dean since February.
Rivera previously worked as the psychology department’s chair at the University of California, Davis, according to the email.
“A proud first-generation Latinx scholar, [Rivera] will bring her collaborative expertise and cross-disciplinary approach to the college at a pivotal time,” Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer Rice wrote in the email.
The psychology professor was also an affiliate faculty member of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience.
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Rivera’s research is largely centered around “investigating neurocognitive development in both typically and atypically developing individuals, specifically those with fragile X syndrome, autism and Down syndrome,” according to the email.
She is also involved in various professional organizations including the Cognitive Development Society, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, the Jean Piaget Society, the Society for Neuroscience and the Society for Research in Child Development, the email read. She’s the editor in chief of Human Development, an academic journal.
In 2021, Rivera was appointed to a term on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, which lasts three years.
Rivera received a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana University, according to the email.
