This feature on University of Maryland is part of Our Own Hands, a partnership between Salesforce.org and The Atlantic’s in-house creative studio, Atlantic Re:think, illuminating stories of Black individuals, organizations, and communities committed to solving systemic problems, one win at a time.
Leading a flagship university of 40,000 students and more than 14,000 faculty and staff is no easy task in any circumstance, let alone in the midst of both a COVID-19 pandemic and a racial injustice pandemic. When Dr. Darryll J. Pines stepped onto the University of Maryland’s (UMD) campus on July 1, 2020 as the institution’s second Black leader — following in the history-making footsteps of John B. Slaughter who served as UMD’s Chancellor from 1982-1988 — he was facing both.
Taking on both the regular work of a university president while also leading his campus community through unprecedented polarization was a challenge that he was uniquely qualified
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