Dear WIED Member:
We have an excellent slate of candidates for our 2011-2013 elections. Below is the list of candidates and their statements. After that are the instructions on how to cast your ballot. Deadline is April 30, 2011!
Summary of the WIED Board positions for 2011-2013:
-Program Chair-Elect: Beena Sukumaran (Rowan U), Beth Holloway (Purdue), Jacqueline El-Sayed (Kettering U)
-Director: Awards: Susan Metz (Stevens), Patricia Justice (HUGs 4 Girs N S.T.E.M.s), Cindy Waters (NC A&T)
-Director: Positions: Susan Lantz (Trine U), Elizabeth Litzler (U. Washington), Keisha Walters (Mississippi State)
-Director at Large: Jenna Carpenter (Louisiana Tech) Fatima Al Harbi (George Washington U), Laura Pauley (Penn State), Mehrube “Ruby” Mehrubeoglu (Texas A&M--Corpus Christi)
-Treasurer: Lisa Marshall (NC State), Canan Bilen-Green (NDSU), Susan Burkett (U. Alabama), Adrienne Minerick (Michigan Tech)
-Webmaster: Mary Phelps (HEDGE), Sandra Eksioglu (Mississippi State)
-Program Chair-Elect will become the Program Chair after one year as Program Chair-Elect, then become the Division chair after 2 years as Program Chair. The Program Chair is responsible for (1) announcing the Call for Abstracts to the WIED membership and beyond as necessary, (2) Coordinating the Abstract Review Process including obtaining reviewers and assigning abstracts for review, (3) coordination of the full paper submission process, (4) coordinating the paper review process, (5) organizing the submitted papers into sessions, (6) other conference program details as necessary. This is a five year commitment.
·CANDIDATE 1: Beena Sukumaran, Professor and Chair, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University has been active with the Women in Engineering Division, including serving as Director at Large, presenter, panelist and reviewer. During her term as Director at Large, she worked with other officers of the WIED division to formulate a strategic plan, which was successfully adopted by the membership at the ASEE annual meeting in 2010. In addition, she has assisted and led various initiatives, including organizing two panel sessions. She is also firmly committed to the mission of WIED and to expand available opportunities for women in engineering. She has been involved with several outreach programs for women, including the workshop that Rowan’s School of Engineering conducts every summer for middle school girls. She has also done some research on the under-representation of women in engineering. She served on the board of the Alice Paul Institute, whose mission it is to educate the public about Alice Paul, develop future leaders, and work towards achieving women’s equality. She has also served as Chair, Education Committee, US Universities Council of Geotechnical Engineering Education and Research.
·CANDIDATE 2: Beth Holloway has been the Director of the Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) at Purdue University since 2001, where she initiates, manages, evaluates, and promotes comprehensive activities and programs that recruit and retain women in engineering from kindergarten through faculty ranks. She has been a member of ASEE and WIED since 2002, and is currently serving on ASEE’s Diversity Committee. She was president of WEPAN (Women in Engineering ProActive Network, www.wepan.org) in 2006-07, served on WEPAN’s Board of Directors from 2005-2008, and was the co-chair of the 2003 WEPAN National Conference. Beth serves as the advisor to the Purdue Society of Women Engineers, which has over 400 members. Prior to joining Purdue, she worked at Cummins, Inc. as a research and development engineering group leader. Beth received both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue.
·CANDIDATE 3: Jacqueline El-Sayed: You may remember me from the last business meeting. I am currently the WIED treasurer. In this role I have provided monthly financial reports to the WIED Board of Directors and administered our funds. In addition, I led the development of our existing strategic plan. Our strategic plan was developed with iterative input from all WIED members and was ratified by our division at the last business meeting. I also coordinated the WIED/MIND/K-12 joint reception at our annual conference, as well as reviewed papers, presented papers, and served on panels. From this work, I have developed relationships with many ASEE members and staff that will assist me in fulfilling the duties of WIED Program Chair-Elect. I am a professor of mechanical engineering at Kettering University, the Richard L. Terrell Professor of Excellence in Teaching, and the Chief Editor of the International Journal of Process Education. In my role as an editor, I organize the solicitation and reviews of manuscripts similar to the work of the WIED Program Chair-Elect. As a 2008-2009 American Council on Education Fellow, I engaged in an intensive year of training and completed my internship at Harvey Mudd College with my ACE mentor, President Maria Klawe. Since my return, I have been focusing on organizational direction, appointed as the Chair of the University-wide Planning & Assessment Council. Previously, I was the director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning. I am also a seasoned board member, serving as a commissioner on the Michigan Truck Safety Commission, a member of the University Promotion Committee, and a Trustee for my local school board. In these roles, I have experience with leading teams and coordinating events similar to those at our annual conference.
·CANDIDATE 4: Write-in candidate
- Director: Awards is the Chair of the WIED Awards Committee. As such, s/he is responsible for (1) constituting the awards committee composed of at least 4 WIED members, (2) coordinating the process for selection of the Best Paper Award based on information provided by the Program Chair and providing this information to the Program Chair. This position has a 2-year term.
·CANDIDATE 1: Susan Staffin Metz is a founder and past president of WEPAN, Women in Engineering Proactive Network. In this capacity, she has worked with over 200 colleges and universities to increase access and retention of women in engineering and science through research, policy and program development. She has held several positions at Stevens Institute of Technology, including founding executive director of the Lore-El Center for Women in Engineering and Science, senior advisor to the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, and director, special projects in engineering education. Susan is currently the principal investigator for ENGAGE, Engaging Students in Engineering, a five-year National Science Foundation extension services grant funded through the program for Research on Gender in Science and Engineering. ENGAGE will be working with 30 engineering schools to integrate research-based strategies that increase retention. Although she has been an ASEE member for many years, working with faculty through the ENGAGE project has resulted in a stronger connection with ASEE. It is very important to recognize people for their outstanding work, and as chair of the awards committee, Susan looks forward to contributing to ASEE WIED by acknowledging individuals’ accomplishments to the field.
·CANDIDATE 2: Patricia Justice is Executive Director of H.U.Gs (Historically Unrepresented Groups) 4 Girls N S.T.E.Ms (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), a 501(c) (3) partnership with Dixon Recovery Institute, Inc. She is also President and Chief Executive Officer of Montage Education Technology, a Microsoft Register Partner (MRP) that specializes in providing IT Services, Enterprise Networking Solutions, and Microsoft product training for companies. She received her BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of LaVerne, attended USC’s Master Information Management program, and received her MBA degree in International Marketing and Business from Claremont University. She holds a PhD, in Urban Higher Education and Leadership, from Jackson State University. She is certified to teach courses for Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle.
·CANDIDATE 3: Cindy Waters is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. She has been a member of ASEE since 2005 and active as a WIED reviewer and conference attendee since 2008. She is active in her ASEE-SE division, where she has served as Research Division Chair and in that role has organized and administered successful student poster sessions at the conference. Dr. Waters’ discipline specific research knowledge involves materials engineering, with a new interest in biomaterials. She has also active in the area of Engineering Education. Her college nominated her for the intensive workshop on Rigorous Research in Engineering Education sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE). She has contributed many presentations and papers in the area of active learning research. She is currently on a team at NCA&T working on an AVANCE proposal to create institutional transformation. She is the SWE advisor and joins the active group in attending the National Conference yearly since 2007. This year she has submitted a proposal for a workshop for the Chicago SWE conference. Dr. Waters is passionate about mentoring and attracting young women into engineering.
·CANDIDATE 4: Write-in candidate
- Director: Positions forms a Nominating Committee whose responsibility is to: (1) solicit nominations for the open Officer and Director positions from the WIED membership, (2) prepare a ballot to be distributed to WIED members. The Director: Positions conducts the election and notifies the Division Chair and all of the candidates of the results. This position has a 2-year term.
·CANDIDATE 1: Susan Lantz received her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky in 1976 and 1979, and her Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Illinois--Chicago in 1983. She has spent 19 years in academia, nine years as an engineering consultant, and currently is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Trine University. Having graduated when women made up less than one percent of the engineering workforce, she is a devoted advocate and mentor of younger women pursuing careers in engineering. In addition to her membership in ASEE, where she has served as Director: Positions for the past two years and as a panelist, conference session chair, and reviewer, she is active in the Society of Women Engineers, and a member of the American Society of Biomechanics and the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network (WEPAN), among others. In her spare time, she writes comedy of manners novels (a la Jane Austen), which accounts for her memberships in Novelists, Inc., the Beau Monde, and Romance Writers of America.
·CANDIDATE 2: Elizabeth Litzler is the Director for Research at the UW Center for Workforce Development (CWD). She has been a member of ASEE since 2005. Her research interests include the educational climate for undergraduate and graduate students and gender stratification in education and the workforce. As the Director for Research at CWD, Liz is the Research Manager for the Sloan-funded Project to Assess Climate in Engineering (PACE). She is external evaluator for NCWIT and NCWIT-Extension Services for Undergraduate Programs and the NSF ADVANCE program at UW. She is a member of the American Sociological Association, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and WEPAN. She acts as reviewer and presenter for WEPAN and ASEE conferences and has published in the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering and The Journal about Women in Higher Education. Litzler earned a PhD and MA in Sociology and a BA in Communication with minors in Spanish and Women's Studies. Her dissertation, “Sex Segregation in Undergraduate Engineering Majors,” was focused on understanding the individual and institutional reasons women are disproportionately represented in certain engineering majors.
·CANDIDATE 3: Keisha Walters joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at Mississippi State University (MSU) in 2005, where she currently holds the rank of Assistant Professor. She has been a member of ASEE since 2002 and a member of WIED since 2008. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D. and entering academia, she was a Research Associate at Milliken Chemical from 1996-1998. She regularly participates in K-12 STEM outreach activities. These include teacher workshops in which she develops active learning engineering modules and leads the teachers in their effective classroom use, “what is engineering” talks with student groups, and conducting experiments in elementary classrooms. She also participates in training college freshmen to carry out these outreach activities as part of the Day One Community Leadership program at MSU, and has co-taught a pre-college engineering course during the summer for high school students. By bringing science and engineering to students, she hopes to encourage them to develop their interest in engineering as a way to solve problems and impact society. Dr. Walters is also very interested in the professional development of women, both mid-career and preparing for careers. This interest led her to develop and lead female graduate engineering students in a discussion-based professional development course. The above activities have resulted in several presentations and papers at ASEE conferences. She teaches a wide range of core and elective courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She has a strong research program in polymeric thin films and bioplastics where she has had the opportunity to mentor 4 postdoctoral, 10 graduate, 36 undergraduate, and 3 high school student researchers. Her broad interests in effective career development and mentoring for faculty, educating K-12 students and teachers regarding the opportunities in engineering, and development of the engineering workforce provide her with the strong foundation needed to make effective contributions to the Women in Engineering Division of ASEE.
·CANDIDATE 4: Write-in candidate
- Director: At Large (1 position open): Those elected to this position are assigned duties by the Division Chair, usually work on standing or ad hoc committees of the WIED. This position has a 2-year term.
·CANDIDATE 1: Jenna Carpenter is Associate Dean of Administration and Strategic Initiatives and Director of the Office for Women in Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University. She is also the Principal Investigator for Louisiana Tech University's NSF ADVANCE project. Dr. Carpenter is completing her term as the ASEE Professional Interest Council (PIC) III Chair and Vice President of PICs on the ASEE Board of Directors. She has served three terms on the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) Board of Directors, where she has contributed to professional development initiatives, including serving as co-PI on WEPAN's NSF-funded WEPAN Knowledge Center project. She is serving as an advisor for the diversity and mentoring initiatives on the statewide NSF-funded LASigma (Louisiana Alliance for Simulation-Guided Materials Applications) project and speaks to corporate and academic audiences about diversity issues. She also is the Chair of the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenge Scholars Program Steering Committee. She is a longtime member of WIED and her research interests focus on climate issues, mentoring, and professional development for women faculty and students, as well as innovative integrated STEM education initiatives.
·CANDIDATE 2: Fatima Al Harbi is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication Engineering at George Washington University and a Master’s degree candidate in Management from the same school. After lecturing at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) as a member of the Math and Computer Science faculty, she was awarded a scholarship to pursue her graduate studies. She earned her first Master’s degree from Purdue University in 2004. Fatima worked as a Software Analyst and Developer at the UAE University Information Technology Center in the UAE, as a trainee for software quality assurance at ITEC, Columbus, Ohio, as Research Director at the UAE Information System Association, as a software analyst and developer at ATDI, Inc., McLean, Virginia, as a visiting scholar at the IIUM University, Kuala Lumpur, and as a lecturer and research assistant at the UAE University. She is a member of IEEE, ASEE, IET, and the UAE Business Women Society. Since childhood, she has tutored students in math, science, and computer skills classes. Her interest in complex systems has provided her with a broader view to resolve system problems and optimize their quality. Her research interests includes neural networks and network optimization, as well as telecommunications, network design, and optimization. In addition, she is engaged in the study of engineering and science education development, sustainable energy, and engineering management in general. Projects that she is currently involved in are Teen Accident Avoidance System (TAAS), Efficient Networking-On-Chip in Tile-Based Multiprocessor Templates, Network Mapping Using Evolutionary Programming, Knowledge Management in e-Learning, and Learning Balancing and Empowering at schools. More important than a great experience, knowledge, and support are provided by her loving IT consultant husband, who has always believed in supporting and encouraging women’s education.
·CANDIDATE 3: Laura Pauley is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. From July 2000 to June 2007 she served as Professor-in-Charge of Undergraduate Programs in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. From July 2000 to June 2009 she also served her department as the ABET coordinator. In 2003 Dr. Pauley was recognized for her work in undergraduate programs by receiving the inaugural Penn State Undergraduate Program Leadership Award given at the university level. In July 2005 she was selected as the first Arthur L. Glenn Professor of Engineering Education, the first engineering professorship at Penn State that recognizes accomplishments in engineering education. Recently Dr. Pauley has worked on several grants focusing on aspects of engineering education, including the climate for women in engineering, active learning, course take-home experiments, and student presentation skills. She has also initiated efforts in curriculum reform and experimental case studies for required courses in mechanical engineering. Dr. Pauley has served on the Women in Engineering Advisory Committee at Penn State since 1999 and has participated in the Women in Engineering student activities for many years. For the last two years she has served the WIED of ASEE as the Awards Director. She is interested in continuing to serve WIED as a Director-at-Large to assist the division as needed.
·CANDIDATE 4: Mehrube “Ruby” Mehrubeoglu is faculty and program coordinator for Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Technology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC). She received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively. She obtained her M.S. degree in Bioengineering from Texas A&M University. Before her current appointment at TAMUCC, she worked as a software engineer at ESI, department chair at Cyprus International University, and visiting faculty at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Dr. Mehrubeoglu is interested in multidisciplinary research, and has mentored undergraduate women and other underrepresented student groups in her laboratory, most recently on imaging and image processing applications. Her broad background in engineering and related areas makes her understand the issues in multiple engineering fields clearly. As a member, Dr. Mehrubeoglu has contributed to ASEE as a presenter, reviewer, and conference session chair. She is also actively involved in IEEE, where she has served as the president of the IEEE Corpus Christi Section (2009, 2010). She is the faculty advisor for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Engineering Technology Society. She understands the need for innovation, respect for diversity, communication, and collaboration to be successful and train successful individuals for the global market. She is ready to contribute to WIED in any way that utilizes her education and experiences.
·CANDIDATE 5: Write-in candidate
- Treasurer maintains the financial records of the organization. As such s/he is responsible for creating and presenting financial reports for the Executive Board throughout the year, and to the general membership at the Annual Business Meeting. The treasurer is responsible for keeping track of all income and expenses for WIED. This position is a 2-year term.
·CANDIDATE 1: Lisa Marshall: A deeper understanding of the ‘E’ in STEM for youth, parents, counselors and educators continues to be Lisa Marshall’s work through professional and extracurricular activities. The ASEE’s K-12 & Pre-College Division is an important piece of this pie, serving as a community of collaborators in which she wishes to play a greater role. Recent experiences include the 2010-11 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Education, Training and Workforce Development Division treasurer; 2010-11 Vice-Chair ANS-Eastern Carolinas Section; 2009 & 2010 co-chair for the National Outreach Scholarship Emerging Engaged Scholars program; 2007-08 and 2008-09 chair of NC State University's Council on the Status of Women; and ASEE 2006 program chair & 2007 chair of the Nuclear & Radiological Engineering Division. Lisa continues to be active in the coordination and instruction of pre-college and new university programs through science teachers' workshops, pre-college summer academic programs, visitation programs, academic advising and an introductory engineering course. Currently, she serves as NC State University’s Director of Nuclear Engineering Outreach. She has been a workshop presenter for the NC Science Teachers’ Association Professional Development Institute, and contributes as an appointed member to the work of the American Nuclear Society Public Information and Public Policy committees.
·CANDIDATE 2: Canan Bilen-Green is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at North Dakota State University. She directs NDSU’s NSF ADVANCE funded institutional transformation efforts to increase participation of women faculty in all academic ranks. As SWE faculty advisor, Bilen-Green coordinates several outreach activities targeting female students. She has been a member of ASEE since 1998 and has contributed paper and poster presentations. She has co-authored over 20 papers in her primary research area of quality engineering and maintains her certification as a quality engineer. Dr. Bilen-Green holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Statistics from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey.
·CANDIDATE 3: Susan Burkett earned the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri in 1985, 1987, and 1992, respectively. She joined the University of Alabama as the Alabama Power Foundation Endowed Professor in January 2008. Previous to that appointment, she was a Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas (2002-2007). Professor Burkett’s teaching responsibilities include: Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering; Circuits; Integrated Circuit Processing;, and advanced courses in Integrated Circuit Processing. Dr. Burkett’s research interests are in the area of electronic materials. She is involved in research funded by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), NASA, and NSF. From 2005-2006 she served as Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education. In that position she monitored active grants, made recommendation for submitted proposals, and moderated review panels. She also provided workshops at ASEE and FIE conferences on effective proposal writing. Professor Burkett is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the AVS: Science and Technology Society, and ASEE. She currently serves as the 2011 IEEE Education Society Program Co-Chair for the Frontiers in Education (FIE) conference. Her vision for the ASEE Women in Engineering Division (WIED) leadership position is to coordinate with Division officers and members in a professional and responsive manner helping to communicate ideas and decisions affecting all members.
·CANDIDATE 4: Adrienne Minerick is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Tech, having moved from Mississippi State University Jan 2010, where she was a tenured Associate Professor. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2003 and B.S. from Michigan Technological University in 1998. Adrienne’s research interests include electrokinetics, predominantly dielectrophoretic characterizations of cells, and the development of biomedical microdevices. She earned a 2007 NSF CAREER award, has published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (2006), Lab on a Chip, and had an AIChE Journal cover (2008). She is an active mentor of undergraduate researchers and served as co-PI on an NSF REU site. Research within her Medical micro-Device Engineering Research Laboratory (M.D. – ERL) also inspires the development of Desktop Experiment Modules (DEMos) for use in undergraduate chemical engineering classrooms or as outreach activities in area schools. Adrienne has been an active member of ASEE’s WIED, ChED, and NEE leadership teams since 2003, and during this time has contributed to 33 ASEE conference proceedings articles.
·CANDIDATE 5: Write-in candidate
- Webmaster: The Webmaster is responsible for maintaining the Division’s website http://wied.asee.org. This would include (but is not limited to) posting minutes, position descriptions, calls for papers, updating the officer pages and more. Regular report on website utilization must be created and reported to the Board. This position has a 2-year term.
·CANDIDATE 1: Mary Phelps is currently serving her first year as Director at Large and Assistant Webmaster of the Women In Engineering Division of ASEE . She has also been a Member At Large (MAL) of the Society of Women Engineers since 1985, ITEA (now ITEEA) since 2008, and recently joined WEPAN. She holds a BSME from Union and is a few months from her master's in Technology Education at North Carolina A & T, with a special research focus on improving numbers of women in engineering through Technology Education. In SWE, she has served as Member At Large (MAL) Council Rep several times since 1986, including present, and is FY11/12 chair for the Society's Outreach committee. She retired early in 2007 after nearly 30 years in the energy business, to pursue her passion of improving underrepresentation of women in engineering through HEDGE Co, her consultancy working with educators and other adult influencers to direct more girls towards engineering and technology-based study. She has done a little web design and considers herself functional in Dreamweaver. She brings the typical multi-tasking abilities to ASEE that many busy women have, and enjoys the relationships she develops in volunteer organizations. She lives in San Diego and sidelines as a grandnanny for Dexter, 2, and Penelope, 6 months.
·CANDIDATE 2: Sandra Eksioglu is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Mississippi State University (MSU). She earned her PhD form University of Florida in 2002 in the area of supply chain optimization. She has been a member of ASEE and WIED since 2005. As a professor at MSU, Dr. Eksioglu has mentored and has been the research advisor of a number of women at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is fond of helping young women advance and be successful in different fields of engineering and science. Dr. Eksioglu is currently serving as the Junior VP of Communications for Women in Operations Research and Management Science (WORMS). WORMS is a Forum of Institute for Operations Research and Management Science; its goal is to advise the board on issues facing women in the profession of Operations Research and Management Science.
·CANDIDATE 3: Write-in candidate
Instructions on how to vote:
You may cast your ballot by going here. Voting will close on April 30th, 2011. WIED members will need to enter the email address they use to login to ASEE to vote.
Thank you for your support of the WIED!
Donna Reese
Chair, ASEE-WIED