2024 EDI Speaker Bios 

Alexis Abramson
Dean & Professor of Engineering
Dartmouth College

Alexis Abramson is the 13th dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, where she has been since mid-2019. At Dartmouth, she leads an expansion of the school, putting human-centered engineering at the heart of engineering education, research, and practice. Alexis’ research has focused broadly on thermal transport, from designing nanostructured materials to addressing building energy efficiency. Alexis also co-founded Edifice Analytics, a start-up that conducts virtual energy audits and manages building optimization. Prior to joining Dartmouth, she was the Maltz Professor of Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University and served as a director of the university’s Great Lakes Energy Institute. During the Obama administration, Abramson held the role of chief scientist and manager of the Emerging Technologies Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program. In 2018, she also served as technical adviser for Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion effort launched by Bill Gates to combat human-driven climate. She received her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and her PhD from University of California, Berkeley. 

Stephanie Adams  
Dean
The University of Texas – Dallas  

Dr. Stephanie G. Adams is the 5th Dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas, Dallas. Previously Dr. Adams served as the Dean of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (2016–2019), Department Head and Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech (2011–2016), and held faculty and administrative positions at Virginia Commonwealth University (2008–2011) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1998–2008). She has been PI or Co-PI on more than $15 million in external funding in the domains of broadening participation, faculty and graduate student development, international/global education, and team effectiveness. She is the author/co‐author of more than 100 scholarly publications (journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, etc.). Dr. Adams is an honor graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering, in 1989. In 1991, she was awarded the Master of Engineering degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1998, where she concentrated in Industrial Engineering and Management. She holds membership in a number of organizations and is a Past President and a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education, is a member of the Board of Directors for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and is a Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. 

Gregory Abowd
Dean
Northeastern University 

Gregory D. Abowd is the Dean of the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, where he is also a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with affiliate appointments in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Prior to joining Northeastern in March 2021, Dr. Abowd was faculty in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology for over 26 years. His research has introduced innovations in the classroom, the home, for stakeholders connected with autism, and, most recently, sustainable forms of computing.  Dr. Abowd is a Fellow of the ACM and an elected member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy. He was a 2009 recipient of the ACM Eugene Lawler Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Honors Mathematics (summa cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame in 1986 as well as a Master of Science (1987) and Doctor of Philosophy (1991) in Computation from the University of Oxford, where he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Scott Ashford
Dean
Oregon State University

Scott Ashford’s career with Oregon State University began in the early 1980s, when he was a civil engineering undergrad hired to stack rocks for a riprap study at the Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. Now, as Kearney Dean of Engineering, he oversees the 7th largest college of engineering in the nation, with nearly 400 faculty and staff and serving over 11,000 students. He considers this to be a lot more gratifying than stacking rocks.

After graduating from Oregon State, he worked in private industry and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His academic career began at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and then moved to the University of California, San Diego, where he earned the rank of Professor. As a geotechnical engineer studying earthquakes, much of his research focuses on blast-induced liquefaction. He was thrilled to return to Oregon State in 2007.

Dean Ashford is committed to empowering the research and innovation of the College of Engineering’s world-class faculty, building multi-disciplinary collaboration across the university and beyond, and supporting the success of an increasingly diverse student body. He believes Oregon State Engineers are needed now more than ever to deliver the solutions that will change the world.

Sara Atwood

Elizabethtown College School of Engineering and Computer Science

P.J Boardman
Director
Mathworks 

P.J. Boardman is the Global Director of STEM Outreach and Workforce Development at  

MathWorks managing a team responsible for catalyzing, engaging, and inspiring the next

generation of scientists and engineers to bridge the STEM gap and prepare the workforce of tomorrow. PJ’s team identifies, initiates, and supports scalable programs to connect students  and educators with training, content, and technology to advance their STEM initiatives. She is the Chair of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Corporate Member Council and the liaison for the P12 Commission as well as a member of the Executive Committee for the Global Engineering Dean’s Council (GEDC). Prior to joining MathWorks in 2014, P.J. was a Vice President of Cengage Learning and Pearson Education. P.J. has a B.A. in Mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross and an MEd from the University of Massachusetts with a focus on Instructional Design and Online Learning. She is a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar where she attended the Universidad de Santiago,  Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Jordan Clarke
Senior Manager, Workforce Strategy & Leadership Development
The Boeing Company 

Jordan is currently the Workforce Strategy Senior Manager for Boeing Global Services. In this role he is responsible for ensuring managers have the training, tools & resources required to be successful. He is also lead on many of the retention efforts within BGS.  

Jordan has been with Boeing for 11 years. His experience spans strategy, operations, people development, and leadership consulting. He is passionate about connecting people and building successful teams.

He holds a Bachelors in Computer Science, a Masters of Business Administration, and a Doctorate in Leadership.  

Dave Copps

COE, Worlds

Suvranu De
Dean
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Suvranu De, Ph.D. is the Google Endowed Dean for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering. He joined the college in July 2022 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Engineering, where he was most recently the J Erik Jonsson ’22 Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) and founding director of the Center for Modeling, Simulation and Imaging in Medicine (CeMSIM).

De received his bachelor’s from Jadavpur University, India, in 1993; master’s from the Indian Institute of Science in 1995; and doctorate from MIT in 2001, all in mechanical engineering.

Dean De’s research encompasses virtual reality, noninvasive neuroimaging, and artificial intelligence and their applications to high-impact problems in healthcare. He has authored or co-authored numerous book chapters as well as papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He has also coedited two books – Computational Modeling in Biomechanics (Springer, 2010) and Multiscale Modeling in Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (Springer, 2014). In addition, De holds 14 copyrights and one patent.

Dean De currently serves on the editorial boards of five international journals: Frontiers of Neuroergonomics, Computers and Structures, Computers, Materials & Continua, International Journal of Modern Mechanics, International Journal of Computational Methods, and scientific committees of numerous national and international conferences. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and serves as Vice-Chair (Awards) of the IEEE Technical Committee on Haptics. He leads/co-leads several Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) committees. He has served five years on the BTSS study section of the NIH as a charter member and as the lead of the Theoretical and Computational Workgroup of the Multiscale Modeling Consortium of the NIH. He was on the advisory board of the Mechanical Engineering department of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Earlier in his career, Dean De received numerous research awards, including the ONR Young Investigator Award (2005), the James M. Tien ’66 Early Career Award for Faculty (2009), the Rensselaer School of Engineering Outstanding Research Team Award (2021 & 2012), and the J. Tinsley Oden Medal of the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (2019). In 2022, he was awarded the Edwin F. Church Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for sustained and innovative mechanical engineering academic leadership with an emphasis on industry and academic collaboration, as well as technological innovation leading to entrepreneurship.

Dean De is an elected Fellow of four professional societies: the ASME, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the International Association for Computational Mechanics, and the United States Association for Computational Mechanics. In 2023, he was named a Google Endowed Dean by Florida A&M University.

Sam Easterling
Dean
Iowa State University 

W. Samuel Easterling serves as the James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Dean of Engineering and Professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University.  He received his BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from West Virginia University, and his PhD in structural engineering from Iowa State University.   Prior to returning to Iowa State as dean in 2019, Easterling spent 32 years on the faculty at Virginia Tech, where he served as head of the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2009-2019. He was active in university governance at Virginia Tech, serving as president of the faculty senate, chair of the commission on faculty affairs; chair of the commission on research; and a member of university council.

Easterling is an accomplished educator, scholar and administrator and is a registered Professional Engineer. He is active in professional organizations including the American Institute of Steel Construction, American Society of Civil Engineers and American Society for Engineering Education. He presently serves on the Committee on Specifications for AISC and is Chair of the ASEE EDC Public Policy Committee. Easterling’s primary research interests are in the areas of composite and cold-formed steel structures, and he has received numerous awards for his research and professional service. He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute and a Distinguished Member of the Structural Stability Research Council.  

Sheryl Ehrman

San José State University College of Engineering

Jacqueline El-Sayed
Chief Executive Officer
American Society for Engineering Education 

Dr. Jacqueline El-Sayed is the Chief Executive Officer for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Under her leadership, ASEE has led national thought leadership initiatives, generated new value-added products, services, and revenue streams including over $50M in new external funding and is currently conducting a national Listening Tour to inform the next ASEE Strategic Plan. She has leadership experience with the entire pipeline of engineering education and most recently served as ASEE’s Chief Academic Officer and prior to that Chief Academic Officer & Vice President for Academic Affairs at Marygrove College. She is a professor emerita of mechanical engineering and served on the faculty at Kettering University for 18 years, eventually earning the position of Associate Provost & Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. In addition to her work in academia she has served in industry and government. She is a four-time gubernatorial appointee to the Michigan Truck Safety Commission and, as commissioner, served as chair for two terms. She began her career as an engineer for General Motors Truck Group and has been nationally recognized in higher education as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow, a New Leadership Academy (NLA) Fellow, an ASEE Fellow, and an inductee to the ASEE Hall of Fame. As an ACE Fellow she was placed at Harvey Mudd College as a member of the president’s cabinet, visited over 30 campuses, and completed a national benchmark study on experiential education. The study’s recommendations and model were then implemented at her home institution. She has adapted this model to inform the development of programs launched at ASEE including the CyBR-MSI, EOP-MGP, and eFellows programs. Dr. El-Sayed has served on several Boards including serving on the Bloomfield Hills Board of Education for 10 years. Currently, Dr. El-Sayed serves on the NASEM Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education, the Eng+ INCLUDES Alliance and on the SME and WEPAN Board of Directors.

Tommy Gardner
Chief Technology Officer
HP Federal

Tommy Gardner is HP’s Chief Technology Officer for HP Federal, spanning the US Federal Agencies, Higher Education, K-12 Education, State and Local government customer segments, as well as Federal Systems Integrators. His current responsibilities include technology leadership, strategic technology plans, product and technology strategies, sales force technical support, and customer and partner relationships.

Previously, Tommy has served as the Chief Technology Officer for Jacobs Engineering, Scitor, and ManTech. Earlier in his career he was a senior technical executive at Raytheon. In the U.S. Navy he served as the Deputy for Science and Technology for the Chief of Naval Research. He oversaw the Navy’s Deep Submergence Program as well as its Advanced Technology Program. He also commanded the nuclear submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751).

Tommy’s educational background covers multiple disciplines and fields of interest including: cybersecurity, data science, blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and systems integration in government markets.

Tommy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, an M.S. in Management of Technology from MIT and a Ph. D. in Energy Economics from George Washington University. He is a Professional Engineer and serves as Chair of the ASME Industry Advisory Board. He is an ASME Fellow and serves as faculty on the Blockchain Research Institute.

David Grewell

Northern Illinois University College of Engineering and Engineering Technology

Venu Govindaraju

VPRED, University at Buffalo

Shelly Gulati
Professor, Bioengineering
University of the Pacific

Richard Harris
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Northeastern University

Jeffrey Holmes

University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Engineering

Nader Jalili
Dean
Southern Methodist University 

Dr. Jalili joined Southern Methodist University (SMU) as the Mary and Richard Templeton Dean of Lyle School of Engineering on March 2023. He was formerly professor and head of mechanical engineering department at the University of Alabama (UA) since 2018.   Prior to UA, he was Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Department Chair for Graduate Studies and Research, and Director of Northeastern University Piezoactive Systems Laboratory at Northeastern University.  In his role at UA, Dr. Jalili has led a significant increase in external research awards and enrollment as well as the creation of the Alabama Initiative on Manufacturing Development and Education.  While at Northeastern, Dr. Jalili facilitated the creation of several new degree programs in areas such as mechatronics, robotics and human-machine interface, while leading graduate student recruitment and admission and overseeing department research activities.  An ASME Fellow, Dr. Jalili is an innovative leader and researcher, known for bringing the resources of engineering education and research to undergraduate and graduate students, industry partners and community outreach programs. He has been PI or Co-PI on more than $18 million in external funding in the domain of vibration, control and robotic-based manufacturing.  He is the author/co‐author of more than 375 peer‐refereed technical publications, including 145 journal papers, 2 textbooks and 5 book chapters.  Dr. Jalili obtained his BS and MS degrees from Sharif University of Technology and PhD from the University of Connecticut, all in mechanical engineering.

JoAnn S. Lighty

Dean

Boise State University College of Engineering

Pradeep Khosla
Chancellor
University of California, San Diego

Pradeep K. Khosla became UC San Diego’s eighth chancellor on August 1, 2012. As UC San Diego’s chief executive officer, he leads a campus with more than 43,000 students within eleven academic, professional and graduate schools and eight undergraduate residential colleges. UC San Diego is also home to the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the UC San Diego Health System. With annual revenues of $7.8 billion in fiscal year 2023, UC San Diego is an academic and research powerhouse, with faculty, researchers and staff attracting more than $1.76 billion in sponsored research funding in 2023. UC San Diego is recognized as one of the top 20 research universities in the world and is the largest civilian employer based in San Diego County.

Khosla initiated and led UC San Diego’s first-ever Strategic Plan and the ambitious 10-year, $2 billion Campaign for UC San Diego. The Campaign raised $3.05 billion, exceeding its original goal by more than $1 billion, and making UC San Diego the youngest institution ever to complete a multi-billion-dollar fundraising campaign. UC San Diego and UC San Diego Health are currently undergoing a $5 billion construction boom to expand healthcare services, classrooms, research space and double the number of on-campus housing units.

Khosla has significantly expanded college access and affordability for underserved populations, initiated interdisciplinary research initiatives to foster collaboration and solve societal challenges, and strengthened university and community relationships and partnerships.

An internationally renowned electrical and computer engineer, Khosla previously served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Philip and Marsha Dowd University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He spent the majority of his career at Carnegie Mellon, rising through the ranks from his first position as Assistant Professor in 1986 to his appointment as Dean in 2004. From 1994 to 1996, he also served as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Program Manager in the Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office, Defense Sciences Office and Tactical Technology Office, where he managed advanced research and development programs.

Khosla is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and the American Society for Engineering Education. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Association for Advancement of Science, the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, the Indian Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science. Khosla is also the recipient of numerous awards for his leadership, teaching, and research, including the 2012 Light of India Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the George Westinghouse Award for contributions to improve engineering teaching. In 2012, he was named one of the 50 most influential Indian-Americans by SiliconIndia.

Javier Kypuros
Dean
University of Texas at Tyler 

Dr. Javier Kypuros has served the University of Texas (UT) System for over 20 years. He is the Dean and Brazzel Endowed Professor of Engineering at The University of Texas at Tyler College of Engineering. Prior to joining UT Tyler in the summer of 2017, Javier served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV, formerly The University of Texas-Pan American or UTPA). He served as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering for 15 years at UTRGV/UTPA and prior to that at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in the then Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He has been recognized by the UT System with the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2014, by his students with the UTPA Outstanding Faculty Member in Mechanical Engineering Award in 2015, and by his colleagues with the UTPA College Excellence Award for Service in 2012 and the UTPA College Excellence Award for Teaching in 2011. In 2013 he published the leading undergraduate-focused textbook for dynamic systems modeling using bond graphs entitled System Dynamics and Control using Bond Graph Modeling. He has co-authored dozens of publications, including works on innovative approaches and methods to improve student success and persistence, especially amongst underserved populations. Presently, he serves on the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Deans Council (EDC) Executive Board and the ABET Academic Advisory Council. He chairs the ASEE EDC Diversity Committee, which oversees the Diversity Recognition Program.

Nancy Lape
Professor of Engineering
Harvey Mudd College

Nancy Lape, PhD, professor of engineering, focuses her research on two areas: energy-efficient composite gas separation membranes and chemical transport across human skin.

Kemper Lewis
Dean
The University at Buffalo

Kemper Lewis is Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo.  He is also Director of the Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technologies (SMART) Institute and was the inaugural Moog Endowed Professor of Innovation.  His research expertise is in the areas of design analytics, decision networks, complex system tradeoffs and optimization, and decision modeling.  He is a fellow of ASME, Associate Fellow of AIAA, and has served on the National Academies Panel on Benchmarking the Research Competitiveness of the United States in Mechanical Engineering. His research has resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, and over $33M in research funding from NSF, NASA, NIH, ONR, the State of New York, and private industry.  In recognition of his scholarship in research and education, he has received awards from ASME, SAE, ASEE, AIAA, NSF, and the State of New York including the 2017 ASME Design Automation Award.  He holds a BS in ME and a BA in Math from Duke University, a MS and PhD in ME from Georgia Tech, and an MBA from the University at Buffalo.  

Susan Lord
Chair & Professor
University of San Diego

Susan M. Lord, PhD, is a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). Dr. Lord’s teaching interests include electronics, optoelectronic materials and devices, service-learning, feminist pedagogy and lifelong learning. From 1993-1997, Dr. Lord taught at Bucknell University. Her industrial experience includes AT&T Bell Laboratories, General Motors Laboratories, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and SPAWAR Systems Center. In 2012, she taught at Southeast University in Nanjing, China. From 2006-2016, she was chair of Electrical Engineering at USD.

Dr. Lord’s research has been supported by several National Science Foundation (NSF) grants from programs including CAREER, gender in science and engineering (GSE), and research in engineering education (REE). Her research focuses on the study and promotion of diversity in engineering including student pathways, diverse populations including Latinos and military veterans, and cross-cultural studies with non U.S. students. She is part of the USD team working on “Developing Changemaking Engineers”, funded by the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) program.

Since entering college, Dr. Lord has been committed to increasing diversity in engineering particularly supporting women and underrepresented minorities. She co-authored The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering with Dr. Michelle Madsen Camacho of the USD Sociology Department. She and her research team have received best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education and the IEEE Transactions on Education and the 2013 WEPAN Betty Vetter Award for Research.

Dr. Lord is active in the international engineering education community. She served as general co-chair of the 2006 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference and as the vice president (2007-2008) and president (2009-2010) of the IEEE Education Society. Dr. Lord is an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Education and the Journal of Engineering Education. She joined the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI) facilitation team in 2015 conducting annual workshops for engineering educators.

Anthony J. Marchese
Dean of Engineering
University of Rhode Island

As dean, Marchese is charged with providing direction, advocacy and oversight for the College of Engineering, faculty, students and staff; promoting the academic, research and community service missions of the College and the University; building partnerships with national and international academic and research institutions, business and industry, federal state and local government, alumni and other constituencies; collaborating with other programs across the University; and enhancing the overall reputation of the University of Rhode Island and the College of Engineering.

A Mount Olive, New Jersey, native, Marchese arrived at CSU in 2008 as an associate professor of mechanical engineering before being promoted to full professor. In the Department of Mechanical Engineering, he was the director of the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory and founded and directed the Advanced Biofuels Combustion Laboratory, focusing on development of bio-derived, drop-in replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Marchese also served as associate department head for graduate studies, overseeing the program in mechanical engineering. He was named associate dean in 2016.

Marchese is an expert in internal combustion engines, biofuels and methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and his work has been broadly disseminated in over 350 journal, conference and invited presentations. Results from his work on methane emissions have been published in Science, Nature Communications and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and have informed state and national policy makers on greenhouse gas emission regulations. Since 2019, he has served as the chair of the U.S. Sections of The Combustion Institute. He is also a dedicated engineering educator and recipient of numerous honors and awards for his excellence in teaching, including the American Society for Engineering Education Kauffman Award for Technology Entrepreneurship. In 2001, he was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

Prior to CSU, Marchese taught at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where he created the Rowan Undergraduate Venture Capital Fund for rapid development of student inventions. While teaching, he also became the first executive director of the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University, overseeing its development and managing all day-to-day operations.

Michelle Marcolongo

Dean of Engineering 

Villanova University

Ann McKenna

University of Iowa College of Engineering

Gustavo Menezes
Professor and Chair, Department of Civil Engineering 
California State University, Los Angeles

 J.P. Mohsen
Associate Dean of Administration and Faculty Affairs
University of Louisville

J.P. Mohsen is Associate Dean of Administration and Faculty Affairs and Professor and former Chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at University of Louisville. He served as President of the American Society for Engineering Education during 2009-10 and served on the regional Board of Direction of the American Society of Civil Engineers representing Kentucky during 2009-12.

Sunny Moon
Assistant Vice President
California State University, Los Angeles

Sunny Moon is Assistant Vice President for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at California State University, Los Angeles. She takes on key leadership to promote evidence-based culture, emphasizing data utilization, strategic analysis, and policy recommendations based on actionable data. She oversees impactful research on college success for underrepresented students, enrollment management, and graduation initiatives. Dr. Moon was recognized with the Best Institutional Research Leadership Award at the National Symposium on Student Retention. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Southern California and previously served as a post-doctoral research fellow at the same institution's Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis. 

Kim LaScola Needy
Dean
University of Arkansas

Dr. Kim LaScola Needy is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and serves as the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas.  She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Wichita State University.  She previously held an academic appointment at the University of Pittsburgh (1993-2008), and served as the Industrial Engineering Department Head (2008-2014) and Dean of the Graduate School and International Education (2014-2020) at the University of Arkansas.  Prior to her academic appointments, she gained industrial experience while working at PPG Industries and The Boeing Company.

Dean Needy’s research interests include engineering management, engineering economic analysis, sustainable engineering, and integrated resource management.  She has co-authored over 150 papers and is a co-author of Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis, Second Edition by John Wiley & Sons published in 2020.  She has been funded on 39 different research grants from various agencies including the National Science Foundation, Department of Education and Construction Industry Institute.

She is a Fellow and Past President of both the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) and the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM), a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and a member of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).  Dean Needy is a Past Chair of the University of Arkansas Chancellor’s Commission on Women and on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Graduate Record Examination for Education Testing Service.  She presently serves as the Past-President of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools and serves on the Board of the United Way of Northwest Arkansas.   Dean Needy is a licensed Professional Engineer in Kansas.

Matthew Ohland
Professor & Associate Head of Engineering Education
Purdue University 

Matthew Ohland is the Dale and Suzi Gallagher Professor and Associate Head of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He led the creation of MIDFIELD, the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development, and his research on the longitudinal study of engineering students has been recognized for the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2008, 2011, and 2019 and in the IEEE Transactions on Education in 2011 and 2015. Dr. Ohland is a Fellow of the ASEE, IEEE, and AAAS and was inducted into the ASEE Hall of Fame in 2023.

Lance Perez
Dean
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Dr. Lance C. Pérez was named dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering in May 2018, following two years as interim dean. An experienced academic and campus leader, Pérez previously was associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies at the university. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 1995.

In his previous administrative positions, Pérez was responsible for faculty and leadership development, promotion and tenure, instructional technology and classroom facilities’ improvements, and graduate education. He led the implementation of $30 million in improvements to the academic facilities and played a pivotal role in the university’s entrance into the Big Ten Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

As a faculty member, he has won numerous teaching awards and has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than $15 million in federally funded research. His research interests include signal and information processing, engineering education, and faculty leadership development. From 2008-10, Pérez was a program director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation.

He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In 2016, he received the IEEE Education Society Edwin C. Jones, Jr. Meritorious Service Award. In 2019, he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Education Society Distinguished Member Award.

He has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Bruce Pitman

CIO and Professor

University at Buffalo - SUNY

Sanjay Raman

UMass-Amherst College of Engineering

Joe Roy
Chief Technology and Data Officer
American Society for Engineering Education 

Dr. Joseph Roy leads ASEE's national data collections in engineering education, covering enrollment, degrees, expenditures, faculty, and more. He's the PI on several NSF funded data collections. Previously, he directed the American Association of University Professor's Faculty Salary Survey and developed a technical curriculum in linguistic data analytics at the University of Illinois, where he was also a graduate faculty member. Dr. Roy holds a B.S. in Computer Science & Mathematics, an M.S. in Statistics, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics.

George Small

CTO of Moog

Cole Smith
Dean
Syracuse University 

Dr. J. Cole Smith is Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University. Prior to taking his role as Syracuse, he was Associate Provost of Academic Initiatives and Professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. He has also served as Interim Department Chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering for one year at the University of Florida, and Department Chair of Industrial Engineering for four years at Clemson University. His research has been supported by the NSF, DARPA, AFOSR, DTRA, and the ONR. Dean Smith’s research regards mathematical optimization models and algorithms, especially those arising in combinatorial optimization. His awards include the Young Investigator Award from the ONR, the Hamid K. Elden Outstanding Young Industrial Engineer in Education award, the IISE Operations Research Division Teaching Award, the 2014 Glover-Klingman prize for best paper in Networks, and the best paper award from IIE Transactions in 2007. He became a Fellow of IISE in 2018 and a Fellow of INFORMS in 2023. He has served on the INFORMS Board of Directors as the Vice President of Publications and on the IISE Board of Trustees as Senior Vice President for Continuing Education.

Gregory Triplett
Dean
Saint Louis University 

Gregory Triplett, Ph.D. is the Oliver L. Parks Dean of the School of Science and Engineering at Saint Louis University. Triplett brings a distinguished record of research, student success and leadership and is well-respected for enhancing campus-wide student engagement, harnessing the potential of industry/university partnerships, and narrowing equity and opportunity gaps. He garnered $17M in research awards and received many awards for research, teaching, service and mentoring.

Nancy Warter-Perez
Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department
California State University, Los Angeles

Dr. Nancy Warter-Perez is the chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department and a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As a faculty member for over twenty-five years at Cal State LA, she has been dedicated to improving STEM education and outreach, particularly for underrepresented minorities, and has been actively involved in academic governance.

Andrea Welker
Dean
The College of New Jersey

Andrea Welker PhD., PE, ENV SP, F.ASCE is the Dean of the School of Engineering and a Professor of Civil Engineering at The College of New Jersey. She obtained her BS and MS in Civil Engineering from Drexel University, worked at Gannett Fleming in Pittsburgh, PA, and obtained her PhD in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and an Envision Sustainability professional. She was promoted to Professor in 2013 and assumed the role of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering in 2016 at Villanova University. In July 2022, she joined The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) as the Dean of the School of Engineering. 

Dr. Welker is very active in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In October, TCNJ hosted the ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Fall conference. She has served as the Secretary and Treasurer, Freshman Director, Midterm Director, Senior Director, Program Chair, and Chair of the Civil Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. She is currently serving as the Civil Engineering Division’s liaison to ASCE as part of the Committee on Education. 

As Dean of the School of Engineering at TCNJ, Dr. Welker led the effort to streamline the curriculum by reducing the number of required units. Under her leadership, the School has developed new mission, vision, and values statements and the School is currently developing a new strategic plan. Dr. Welker is the Principal Investigator of an NSF EPIIC grant, which seeks to expand TCNJ’s capacity for external partnerships and develop internal structures to support these activities

Jihui Yang
Vice Dean of College of Engineering
University of Washington

Jihui Yang currently serves as the Vice Dean in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. He holds the Kyocera Corporation Chair in Ceramic Engineering and is a Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Previously, he held the position of Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department from 2017 to 2020. Before joining UW in Fall 2011, he was a Technical Fellow and Lab Group Manager at the GM Research and Development Center.

Jihui provides leadership for UW College of Engineering’s strategic initiatives, serving as the principal research administrator. In this role, he develops and facilitates faculty-led research and ensures ethical, creative, and efficient research conduct while integrating research with the college’s educational goals. His current research focuses on electrochemical energy storage, solid-state energy conversion, electrocatalysis, and the transport properties of quantum materials. Since 2016, Jihui has served as a principal investigator of the Innovation Center for Battery500 Consortium, a DOE program aimed at developing next-generation high-energy batteries that are more reliable, high-performing, safe, and cost-effective. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

Yannis Yortsos
Dean
USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Yannis C. Yortsos is the Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Zohrab Kaprielian Chair in Engineering, a position he has served since 2005. He received a BS (Diploma) in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and MS and Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering.  

Yortsos was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2008. In 2022, he received the Gordon Prize of the National Academy for co-founding the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. Also in 2022, he was a co-recipient of a Los Angeles area Emmy for the USC Viterbi documentary Lives not Grades, which documented the journey of USC engineering students to a refugee camp in the Greek island of Lesvos and their effort to provide technology solutions to improve their condition. In 2023, he received the Chairman’s Award from HENAAC (Great in Minds in STEM).

Yortsos has articulated the concept of Engineering+, which positions engineering as the empowering discipline of our times and the discipline that helps engineer a better world for all humanity. As a national engineering leader, he advocates a change of conversation about engineering. As a result of this change in narrative, USC Viterbi attracts a large number of previously under-represented demographic groups in engineering- and since 2019, the entering Fall class has been gender-balanced.

He is the editor-in-chief of PNAS Nexus, founded in 2021, and the only scientific journal of the National Academies founded in over 100 years.