Staff Bios

David R. Gleason, General Counsel

David Gleason is a licensed attorney in Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia and has over twenty three years of experience, with fifteen years of higher education experience. Mr. Gleason joined the UMBC Office of the General Counsel in 1997, and became General Counsel in 2006. Mr. Gleason’s prior experience includes working as Corporate Counsel for a federal contract services firm, as a solo practitioner, and as business group counsel for a multi-unit commercial business. Mr. Gleason’s practice has included handling federal and commercial contract negotiations, disputes and protests, wage compliance issues, collective bargaining negotiations, and EEOC/OCR, fraud and research misconduct investigations. He has experience in evaluating investment opportunities in emerging technologies and licensing leading edge intellectual property. He has held positions within private industry, academia, and the federal government. He has presented at conferences of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of College and University Attorneys. Since 2004, Mr. Gleason has also served as interim Associate Vice President for Research.

Mr. Gleason holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Virginia Military Institute, a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law.

Christopher Tkacik, University Counsel

Christopher Tkacik is a licensed attorney in Maryland and has over thirteen years of higher education experience. Mr. Tkacik joined the UMBC Office of the General Counsel as University Counsel in 2006. Previously, Mr. Tkacik served as University Counsel to the Division of Student Affairs and as the Director of Student Judicial Programs. Mr. Tkacik’s prior experience includes interning for a Federal Magistrate Judge and as a solo practitioner. Mr. Tkacik’s private practice included bankruptcy, domestic, criminal and contract filings. His higher education experience has focused on FERPA issues, student discipline, sexual harassment investigations, hazing investigations, administrative hearings and hearing board training, Clery Act and other compliance issues, campus safety procedures, and policy review. He has presented at conferences of the Association of Student Judicial Affairs and the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication. Since 1997, Mr. Tkacik has also served as the Campus Classification Officer, overseeing the University’s in-state residency petition process.

Mr. Tkacik holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law.

Ms. Susan McGuire

Ms. McGuire has been employed by UMBC since 1997 and with the Office of the General Counsel since 2000. She provides administrative assistance to Mr. Gleason and Mr. Tkacik, including managing their correspondence and daily scheduling, maintaining the departmental database, managing the student support workforce, and providing administrative travel support to OGC, Human Relations and Ms. Ernestine Baker in UMBC’s Office of Institutional Advancement. She also manages departmental procurement, the OGC operating budget and payroll, and the personnel administration for the office.