Marissa Langford is a strategic leader who joined the college in March 2024 to drive growth and operational excellence in the COE. She likes to say that she covers initiatives from strategy to execution in her dual role as the Assistant Dean for College Operations and Chief of Staff to Dean Pfaendtner. She collaborates with the dean to articulate the college’s mission and vision and identify initiatives that align with his goals. Then, her team provides program support to successfully execute the initiatives. Additionally, she is responsible for enhancing the daily operations of the COE, ensuring efficiency and productivity across the board. Marissa’s position is ideally suited to her because she enjoys identifying a problem and devising an effective solution. Each day presents new challenges and she finds it rewarding to see improvements through to completion. 

During the fall semester, Marissa and her team successfully hosted the first annual Applied AI in Engineering and Computer Science Symposium. This was a landmark, large-scale event for the college and attracted the participation and attendance of faculty, staff, students and industry experts. Planning and managing an event of this size is no small feat, but Marissa relishes a challenge and is extremely proud of the program they developed and the impressive turn out they had. 

The biggest obstacle for Marissa at the moment, however, is finding ways to help people overcome their fear of change, especially those that are accustomed to working a certain way for many years. It’s important for her to identify areas that need improvement in the college and partner with stakeholders who can assist with implementing changes while also addressing any resistance they may face.

In her free time, Marissa enjoys the outdoors and participating in activities like running, walking, yoga and especially hiking. When she wants to unwind, she enjoys a good murder mystery or a true crime podcast. As an admitted true crime fan, Marissa strongly recommends “Counter Clock”, whose latest season focused on a NC case. She’s particularly drawn to cases that highlight injustices in the judicial system. 

Travel is another one of Marissa’s interests. In December, Marissa and her family had the opportunity to spend the holidays in Amsterdam! They joined her daughter, who had just finished her study abroad program, for an amazing week-long vacation. The opportunity to spend quality time reconnecting with her family was the best part of the trip!

We would like to extend our thanks to Marissa for offering us a glimpse into her life and the different roles she has in the COE!