ASCEND Fellows Program Positions Smith School at the Center of UMD’s Grand Challenges Initiative

The University of Maryland is launching a bold new model for multidisciplinary graduate education this fall, establishing three Grand Challenges Graduate Communities (GC)2 designed to bring students from across disciplines together to tackle society’s most urgent problems. Among them, the ASCEND Fellows community—housed in Discovery House and led by Professor of the Practice and Executive in Residence Wendy Sanhai at the Robert H. Smith School of Business—stands out for its ambitious scope and collaborative, Global‑impact mission.

ASCEND, which stands for Advancing Solutions for Challenges at the Nexus of Food, Water, Energy, Climate Change and Health, will immerse graduate students in the complex systems that shape global well‑being. The program is built on a simple premise: today’s interconnected crises—climate change, food insecurity, pandemic preparedness, and global health—cannot be solved within intellectual silos. They require multidisciplinary teams that can integrate scientific, policy, engineering, and business perspectives and translate research into innovative solutions that work in the real world.

Sanhai, whose three‑decade career spans federal agencies (NIH and FDA), global health organizations, industry, management consulting and academia, designed ASCEND as a public–private partnership (PPP) training model that brings those worlds together. “This proposal is an integrative model that employs the mechanism of a Public Private Partnership to share know‑how and best practices and eliminate traditional disciplinary silos,” she writes in the Program’s executive summary.

But the PPP model is not theoretical—it is operational from day one. As Sanhai explains, ASCEND will launch with 15 graduate students, a mix of PhD and Master’s students, organized into interdisciplinary teams, each tackling a different real-world problem. 

A Governance Model Built for Real‑World Impact

ASCEND’s governance structure is intentionally cross‑sector. A Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of 10–12 members will include UMD Deans across schools/colleges at UMD, CEOs and other leaders from industry, and stakeholders from other professional organizations aligned with Program priorities. The SAB will identify and prioritize the real‑world problems that ASCEND teams will tackle each year.

Sanhai describes the process as one of co-creation: “Companies will be invited to submit their most pressing issues, the SAB evaluates and selects the projects that align with the Program’s priorities and which can be supported by a combination of public and private resources. These will become the year’s project portfolio.” Each student team will spend the full academic year conducting research, designing experiments, generating data and producing actionable recommendations for consideration and implementation by their client companies. Students will be encouraged to publish while respecting confidentiality and intellectual property.

This structure gives students hands‑on experience as they hone their critical thinking, research, core consulting, and leadership skills—while working collaboratively with companies to develop invaluable, innovative solutions at a fraction of the cost, as the PPP model will foster sharing know-how, lessons learned, resources and risks.

High‑Engagement Learning Environment

ASCEND Fellows will participate in a robust set of activities designed to build technical, analytical, critical-thinking and professional skills:

• Monthly keynote speakers featuring leaders from private industry (drugs, medical devices and biologics), global health organizations, the life science ecosystem, climate organizations and other key stakeholders. “These are going to be visionary leaders in their field who can catalyze new ideas and inspire students to think out of the box as they develop innovative solutions to pressing problems,” Sanhai says.
• Weekly lecture‑discussions led by Sanhai and a hand-picked team of faculty and external experts, these topics will include strategies for structured problem solving, design thinking, consulting fundamentals and research methods.
• Team project time embedded into the weekly schedule, enabling students to work directly with their external partners.
• Site visits to Capitol Hill, research labs, companies, and—as time and resources permit—corporate headquarters.

These experiences are designed not only to deepen students’ expertise but also to expand their professional networks and accelerate their career trajectories.

A Workforce Development Engine

Sanhai is explicit that ASCEND is neither only a research-only program—it is also a workforce development pipeline. With thousands of UMD students graduating each year into a competitive job market, ASCEND aims to give its Fellows a decisive advantage.

“Once partner companies see the quality of the students that we have—how they are trained to think independently, their problem-solving and leadership skills, and their grit and determination they exhibit when tackling big problems, they will know exactly what they are getting," she says. "Our graduates will be able to hit the ground running with a skillset that will be invaluable to any employer. This program, therefore, will expand professional networks and prepare students and companies for the future through internships and career opportunities."

By embedding students in real‑world projects with industry, government and nonprofit partners, ASCEND creates a direct pathway from graduate training to meaningful employment, she adds.

Strengthening UMD’s Grand Challenges Ecosystem

For the Smith School, ASCEND represents a powerful extension of its commitment to experiential learning, evidence‑based decision making and cross‑disciplinary problem solving, Sanhai says. “It positions fundamental business principles and strategies alongside peers in agriculture, engineering, public health, pharmacy and data science—mirroring the collaborative environments they will enter as professionals.”

Sanhai adds that ASCEND is both a training ground and a catalyst. “This strategic collaboration model will combine interdisciplinary project teams and experiential learning opportunities with external partners,” she says. “Preparing students to address urgent global health, climate change, and food insecurity challenges while strengthening their business acumen to facilitate translation of research outcomes into actionable solutions.”

Students living in Discovery House, Graduate Hills or Graduate Gardens are eligible to apply this summer for the inaugural ASCEND cohort. For those seeking to work at the intersection of science, policy, engineering, and business—and to make measurable change locally and globally—ASCEND offers a rare opportunity to lead. For more information, go to the Grand Challenges Graduate Communities homepage.