Meet the Clark Scholars Program Network's New Director

The Clark School today announced that Joakina Stone is the Clark Scholars Program Network's new director, effective January 29, 2024.

Students in the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation’s A. James Clark Scholars Program are some of the most promising engineers, scholars, researchers, and community members in the country. To continue that tradition, the Clark Foundation and University of Maryland (UMD) proudly announced in October 2023 that the program—implemented at 11 of the nation’s top engineering institutions—will have a new permanent home at the Clark School of Engineering, and known as the Clark Scholars Program Network (CSPN). Joakina has the experience and ambition to make the CSPN a success.

As CSPN Director, Joakina will help the Network achieve two fundamental goals:

• Enabling the continuation of the program community in perpetuity

• Establishing the infrastructure to lead and guide the program across its 11 partner universities

Partner institutions include Duke University, The George Washington University, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins University, Penn State, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, and Virginia Tech. As the Network hub, the Clark School will convene regular meetings with partner institutions, collecting and analyzing data to support scholars’ engineering education.

Joakina joins the Clark School from United Negro College Fund (UNCF) where she served in several critical positions, most recently as Director of Program Administration and Operations, UNCF National STEM Initiatives. She was previously the relationship manager for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, helping to manage the scholarship framework and develop leadership training for students across 15 participating campuses. Joakina received a B.S. in Speech Communication from Oregon State University. She then became a Terp, earning a M.Ed. in College Student Personnel from UMD. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Student Affairs in our College of Education.

Maryland Engineering is excited to welcome Joakina to this important role, and to have a CSPN director who shares our passion for student success.

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