Master of Social Work
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Bachelor of Science
University of Kansas
Elizabeth Appel began her career in higher education at Anne Arundel Community College in 1999 as a professor and department chair of Human Services. In 2010, her administrative duties expanded as she was named the department chair of Health and Human Services. In this role she was responsible for the oversight of the Health, Fitness and Exercise Studies, Human Services, and Massage Therapy programs as well as the college’s fitness and aquatics operations.
In 2010, the college president asked Appel to chair the Middle States reaccreditation steering and self-study committee. As chair, she led the college’s successful reaffirmation of accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Her leadership included facilitating a team of hundreds of faculty, staff and administrators to research and write the self-study and to plan for the site visit that included a 10-member evaluation team.
In 2016, Elizabeth became dean of the School of Health Sciences. In her tenure as dean, she has been instrumental in reorganizing the school to increase administrative and instructional resources and efficiency, creating new health sciences programs that meet workforce needs, increasing the number of students admitted to the nursing program by 56%, guiding programs through both the initial and reaccreditation processes, and successfully providing oversight of the completion of the design phase of the college’s new Health and Life Sciences Building, which opened for instruction in August 2021. The175,000-square-foot building features state-of-the-art laboratories and instructional spaces, places for students to congregate and study and a fully equipped Interprofessional Simulation Center.
Prior to her career in higher education, Appel worked for several nonprofit organizations, including Harundale Youth and Family Services, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Maryland. She opened a private psychotherapy practice in 1998 and worked with adolescents, families and couples until she retired from her practice in 2020.
