Jennifer King Rice

Jennifer Ann King Rice (born February 12, 1968) is an American academic administrator and expert in education finance and policy. She has served as the provost and senior vice president of the University of Maryland, College Park since 2021.

Life
Rice was born on February 12, 1968, in Dayton, Ohio to Victor and Judy King. She lived in State College, Pennsylvania for a few years before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. She spent the majority of her childhood in Erie, Pennsylvania. She earned a B.S. in mathematics and English from Marquette University in 1990. She completed a M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (1995) in educational administration and social foundations from Cornell University. Kenneth A. Strike was Rice's academic advisor for her master's degree. Her dissertation was titled, The Effects of Systemic Transitions from Middle to High School Levels of Education on Student Performance in Mathematics and Science: A Longitudinal Education Production Function Analysis. David Monk was her doctoral advisor.

Rice worked at Mathematica Policy Research where she researched education policy, equity, and social justice. She also worked at Cornell University's finance center of the consortium for policy research. She joined the University of Maryland's college of education in 1995 as an assistant professor. She later served as its associate dean for graduate studies and faculty affairs and as an education policy professor. She was the founding director of the department of teaching and learning, policy, and leadership. She became dean of the college of education on July 1, 2017, succeeding Donna Wiseman. Rice is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and a past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy. In August 2021, Rice became the senior vice president and provost of the University of Maryland, College Park.

She married Jim Rice in 1994.