NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, September 24, 2025 – Edge, the nation’s leading member-owned nonprofit technology consortium, today announced the addition of MarylandOnline to its EdgeMarket Affiliate Partner Program. The affiliate agreement enables MarylandOnline member institutions to access Edge’s comprehensive marketplace of educational technology vendors and contracts, while also providing access to Edge’s internal nonprofit services in cybersecurity, organizational transformation, digital learning, and accessibility. Importantly, a portion of revenue from services utilized by Maryland institutions will flow back to MarylandOnline to support additional programming and initiatives for its members.
Via the EdgeMarket Affiliate Partner Program, the partnership will provide MarylandOnline’s 19 member institutions expanded access to educational technology contracts, services, and collaborative opportunities through Edge’s procurement platform and professional services.
“This partnership represents exactly the kind of forward-thinking collaboration that higher education needs today. Partnerships between institutions is really the way we’re going to see higher education evolve, and crossing state lines while still managing regulations opens up tremendous opportunities for our members to better serve their students.”
— Stephen T. Kabrhel
Dean of Online Learning, Community College of Baltimore County
Current President to Maryland Online.
“This partnership represents exactly the kind of forward-thinking collaboration that higher education needs today,” said Stephen T. Kabrhel, Dean of Online Learning at the Community College of Baltimore County and current President of MarylandOnline. “Partnerships between institutions is really the way we’re going to see higher education evolve, and crossing state lines while still managing regulations opens up tremendous opportunities for our members to better serve their students.”
Wendy Gilbert, Executive Director of MarylandOnline, emphasized the strategic importance of cross-state collaboration. “Interacting with people who do what I do in other states is invaluable. We’re already seeing state consortiums expand beyond their borders, and this partnership with Edge allows us to share different perspectives and solutions with a broader network.”
The partnership comes at a critical time for higher education institutions facing enrollment challenges and resource constraints. Both organizations have built their missions around democratizing access to educational technologies and strategies, making this alliance particularly well-suited to address current market dynamics.
“Interacting with people who do what I do in other states is invaluable. We’re already seeing state consortiums expand beyond their borders, and this partnership with Edge allows us to share different perspectives and solutions with a broader network.”
— Wendy Gilbert
Executive Director
MarylandOnline
“We’re really excited for what this partnership represents,” said Adam Scarzafava, Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, and EdgeEvents at Edge. “MarylandOnline is an organization that we know historically has done so much good work for the institutions of Maryland and their online learning capacity. For them to see value in Edge really says a lot about the consortium approach to addressing higher education challenges.”
Both organizations will be represented at EdgeCon Autumn 2025, Edge’s upcoming conference October 9, 2025 at Rider University, where they plan to showcase collaborative opportunities and share best practices in consortium-based educational support.
About Edge: Edge serves as a member-owned, nonprofit provider of high-performance optical fiber networking and internetworking, Internet2, and a vast array of best-in-class technology solutions for cybersecurity, educational technologies, cloud computing, and professional managed services. Edge provides these solutions to colleges and universities, K-12 school districts, government entities, hospital networks, and nonprofit business entities as part of a membership-based consortium spanning across the nation. For more information, visit njedge.net.
About MarylandOnline: Founded in 1999, MarylandOnline is a consortium of 19 Maryland higher education institutions dedicated to excellence in online learning. The organization developed the Quality Matters Program and continues to provide course sharing platforms, professional development, and collaborative resources to support digital learning initiatives across Maryland. MarylandOnline’s members include all 16 Maryland community colleges plus Morgan State University, Stevenson University, and the University of Maryland Global Campus. The organization has trained nearly 4,000 online instructors and continues to operate course sharing platforms that have served institutions since 2001.
About EdgeMarket: The EdgeMarket Cooperative Pricing System is purpose-built to provide Edge members with an easy way to procure the solutions and services they need at advantageous pricing and terms.
