Valerie Sheares Ashby is a chemist and university professor who currently serves as President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She was the Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University from 2015 to 2022 and formerly chair of the chemistry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2012 to 2015. With her research group, she holds ten patents. On April 4, 2022 it was announced that Ashby would assume the position of president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.