Jennifer Staiger Begins Term as President of Fort Detrick Alliance

​This January, Jennifer Staiger, Ph.D., associate provost of graduate, professional and continuing education at Mount St. Mary’s University, began a two-year term as president of the board of the Fort Detrick Alliance. Staiger is the first woman to fill the position.

At a January 22 Fort Detrick Alliance member event, Staiger gave an overview of planned initiatives in 2020 and thanked Henry “Hank” Abromson, founder of Henry Martin Law, for his contributions to the Alliance during his term as president.

The Fort Detrick Alliance, founded in 2003, is non-Profit organization with the mission to build strong relationships and understanding between Fort Detrick and the region, including Frederick, Washington, and Montgomery Counties. In 2020, the Alliance seeks to continue expansion of membership “As we bring on new members, we hope to see more engagement and involvement from both our board and entire Alliance membership,” Staiger said. “We want to help everyone become more connected to the great work in STEM occurring at the Fort.”

Many of these connections will be made at Alliance events. Among the upcoming activities are the second annual Doing Business with the Fort event, being held April 22 at the Mount’s Frederick campus, and the Innovation and Celebration Gala in the middle of May. Details on these events can be found at www.fortdetrickalliance.org. Other plans for 2020 include website enhancements and increased opportunities for members to participate in sponsorships, task forces and committees.

Staiger encouraged Alliance members to share their ideas, especially on ways to connect members with each other and support efforts at Fort Detrick and in the regional STEM community. The Alliance works to drive workforce and economic development at Fort Detrick and its constituencies in the region, through engagement with individuals; businesses; civil, social and educational organizations; and local and state governments.
Since being named associate provost of graduate, professional and continuing education in June 2018, Staiger has greatly increased the efforts of the Mount’s Frederick campus to build connections to the local community, especially in STEM-related areas.

Staiger, who joined the Mount’s science faculty in 2004, received tenure in 2011 and was promoted to full professor in 2016.  She served five years as Honors Program director and four years as chair for the Department of Science. In 2017 Staiger was appointed interim dean of School of Natural Science and Mathematics.
Prior to coming to the Mount, Staiger spent five years working at the National Cancer Institute doing research on proteins that regulate cell growth and inflammation in cancer.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in biotechnology from University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in pathobiology and molecular pathogenesis from Uniformed Sciences University of Health Science.

About Mount St. Mary’s University

Mount St. Mary’s University is a private, liberal arts, Catholic university in the Catoctin Mountains near historic Emmitsburg, Maryland, with a satellite campus in Frederick, Maryland’s second largest city. The university offers more than 70 majors, minors, concentrations and special programs for traditional undergraduate students, and more than 20 adult undergraduate and graduate level programs as well as 22 NCAA Division I athletic teams. The Mount includes Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, the second oldest in the United States, and the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, an idyllic shrine for spiritual reflection located on the hill above the university.

About the Fort Detrick Alliance
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The Fort Detrick Alliance is a 501c(3) organization with the primary purpose of building relationships between Fort Detrick and the region. Founded in 2003 by the late Colonel Mark Hoke, the Fort Detrick Alliance is partially funded through the Maryland Department of Commerce and is one of seven Military Alliances in the State. The organization’s work is largely focused on advocating for the retention and expansion of the federal missions at Fort Detrick and the 12,000 military, federal, and contractor jobs at the five cabinet level organizations located at Fort Detrick including: Department of Defense (DOD); Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Department of Agriculture (USDA); Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).