Dr. Bruce Herman, RIH director, to retire from UMBC

Dr. Bruce Herman, director of health and counseling for Retriever Integrated Health (RIH), is retiring from UMBC effective August 1, after four decades of service to higher education, including 26 years in the University System of Maryland and 12 years at UMBC. A campus wide reception will be held on Wednesday, July 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. in The Commons Skylight Room. 

"I am grateful to Dr. Herman for his commitment to UMBC and especially to our undergraduate and graduate students. He has been an engaged and collaborative campus partner focused on the changing needs of our diverse student population," says Dr. John Fox, acting associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students. "His leadership legacy is holistic student care created through health and counseling services operating together as Retriever Integrated Health. Clinicians work together in a collaborative, holistic approach to address both mind and body, which enhances the ability to better serve all students."       

Over the course of his career, Dr. Herman focused on services that reach, serve, and support students. At UMBC, he brought a public health approach to campus mental health promotion, which included creating mental health summits to introduce students to this approach and then working with them to help change campus practice and culture. 

In 2019, Dr. Herman oversaw the move of the RIH team into a new shared facility, the Center for Wellbeing. During the pandemic, he worked with the RIH team to set up systems to ensure students had access to mental health and health care.

Prior to UMBC, he worked at Towson University’s Counseling Center and as a psychologist at Loyola University Maryland. He also taught in the psychology and education departments at Towson, Loyola, and the University of Illinois. 

Dr. Herman graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Industrial and Labor Relations and obtained his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.