Noriko Maitland Receives UMD Provost’s Academic Advisor of the Year Award

University of Maryland Department of Computer Science Academic Advisor Noriko Maitland has received the Provost’s Academic Advisor of the Year Award for the 2025-26 academic year.

Each year, a committee of academic advisors selects three university employees for the award, which recognizes advising contributions across campus. Maitland will receive a plaque and a $1,000 award and will be recognized at the Undergraduate Studies Annual Academic Advising Conference on October 7.

“I received the award notification email on my birthday, so it was a big surprise to me,” Maitland said. “I thank my team in CS Undergraduate Advising, especially Madeline G., for encouraging me and supporting my ideas for the projects.”

According to her nomination materials, Maitland contributed to several initiatives to address student advising needs and improve how the department delivers information and resources.

Among those efforts was a collaboration with UMD’s International Student & Scholar Services to develop additional student support. She also helped design and launch the department’s advising ELMS platform, which brings advising information and resources together in one location.

The nomination noted that Maitland incorporated student feedback into platform updates as the advising team continued developing the resource.

Her work also included changes to the department’s advising newsletter. Maitland developed processes for organizing and distributing the newsletter to provide students with academic, career and advising information in a more consistent format.

For Maitland, interactions with students have played a central role in shaping those efforts.

“It has been great, and I enjoy working with students in the CS program,” Maitland said of her advising experience at UMD. “They are my inspiration to make the advising service better.”

Her selection also reflects work carried out collaboratively within the department’s undergraduate advising office.

“It’s nice to be recognized, but I truly believe the award is for the entire CS Advising team,” she said.

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications