Life[edit]

Rice was born on February 12, 1968, in Dayton, Ohio to Victor and Judy King.^[1] She lived in State College, Pennsylvania for a few years before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina.^[1] She spent the majority of her childhood in Erie, Pennsylvania.^[1] She earned a B.S. in mathematics and English from Marquette University in 1990.^[2][3] She completed a M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (1995) in educational administration and social foundations from Cornell University.^[2][3] Kenneth A. Strike was Rice's academic advisor for her master's degree.^[1] 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.^[1] David Monk was her doctoral advisor.^[1]


Rice worked at Mathematica Policy Research where she researched education policy, equity, and social justice.^[2] She also worked at Cornell University's finance center of the consortium for policy research.^[2] She joined the University of Maryland's college of education in 1995 as an assistant professor.^[2] She later served as its associate dean for graduate studies and faculty affairs and as an education policy professor.^[2] She was the founding director of the department of teaching and learning, policy, and leadership.^[2] She became dean of the college of education on July 1, 2017, succeeding Donna Wiseman.^[2] Rice is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and a past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy.^[3] In August 2021, Rice became the senior vice president and provost of the University of Maryland, College Park.^[4]


She married Jim Rice in 1994.^[1]