Office of the Executive Director

Dr. Anne Khademian

Executive Director, The Universities at Shady Grove, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University System of Maryland

Dr. Anne Khademian was named to serve as the Universities at Shady Grove’s (USG) third executive director in October 2020, following a nationwide search and her appointment by Dr. Jay Perman, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM). As executive director of USG – a regional higher education center of USM in Montgomery County, with programs from nine universities on one campus – Dr. Khademian also holds the title of Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for USM.

Before joining USG, Dr. Khademian served most recently as a Presidential Fellow and professor at Virginia Tech, where she enjoyed a distinguished 17-year career that included several years as director of the School of Public and International Affairs. A longtime resident of Montgomery County, Maryland, she served in her presidential fellowship at Virginia Tech’s Research Center in Arlington, near Washington, D.C., supporting the collaborative implementation of “Beyond Boundaries” initiatives to drive organizational innovation and growth across campuses and stakeholder committees.

With nearly three decades of experience in higher education, Dr. Khademian is a nationally recognized scholar and author in the areas of inclusive leadership and organizational change. As director of the School of Public and International Affairs in Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies for seven years, she led the school through a period of significant growth and transformation, introducing new academic degrees and programs, expanding faculty and student enrollment, forging new global partnerships, and extending outreach into local communities.

Her research focuses on leadership and organizational culture, inclusive management, policy networks, and the work of organizations involved in homeland security and financial regulation. She is the author of three books — Working with Culture: The Way the Job Gets Done in Public Programs (CQ Press, 2002); Checking on Banks: Autonomy and Accountability in Three Federal Agencies (Brookings, 1996); and The SEC and Capital Market Regulation: The Politics of Expertise (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992) — and has published numerous articles on public management and public policy.

Dr. Khademian is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization established by Congress to help government leaders build more effective, efficient, and accountable institutions.

As a civic and business leader, Dr. Khademian serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the Board of Directors for both the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation and Smart City Works. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross, National Capital Region for the Montgomery, Howard, and Frederick Counties Chapter, and is a graduate of the Leadership Montgomery CORE Class of 2023.

Her leadership and impact have been recognized through several honors, including Bethesda Magazine’s 2023 “Women Who Inspire” Honoree and March of Dimes’ “Heroines of Washington” Finalist (2023).

Dr. Khademian holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science and Government from Washington University in St. Louis. A former collegiate athlete, she was a standout cross country and track competitor at Michigan State and was inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.