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Jen Staiger is the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Mount St. Mary’s University. She serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet with responsibility for the Division of Continuing Studies and Timothy E. Trainor College of Health Professions. Reporting to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Staiger leads strategic initiatives for the purpose of growing new and existing graduate and adult undergraduate academic programs and partnerships.
Dr. Staiger has extensive experience in academic administration, program development and project management. She has a deep commitment to student learning and development, an inclusive and collaborative leadership style, and the ability to inspire innovation across diverse teams. Dr. Staiger has served as the Associate Provost for the Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) since 2018. During that time, she has worked closely with university leadership to expand programs, credit hours, and revenue.
Prior to her work with DCS, she served the Mount as Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics, Chair of the Department of Science, and Director of the University Honors Program. As Director of the University Honors program, Dr. Staiger worked with faculty to develop the SPARC Festival, an annual community celebration of student and faculty scholarship. Additionally, throughout her twenty-one-year tenure at the Mount, she has served as Co-Principal Investigator on numerous grants, most recently from the Truist Foundation, Maryland Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Staiger holds the rank of full professor at Mount St. Mary’s University. She earned her B.S. in Biology from University of Delaware, Ph.D. in Pathobiology and Molecular Pathogenesis from the Department of Pathology at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Laboratory of Protein Dynamics and Signaling at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.
Dr. Staiger and her husband Chris have lived in Frederick County for 22 years. They enjoy spending time with their sons, Caleb and Wyatt.