Pathways to Self-Efficacy and Retention of Women in
Undergraduate Engineering
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People       

from Northeastern University

Rachelle Reisberg (NU) is the principal investigator (PI). She is the Assistant Dean of Northeastern University's Engineering Enrollment and Retention, Director of the Women in Engineering program and Associate Director of Connections, a program to strengthen the pathways for women to pursue careers in engineering and science. She was responsible for the institutionalization phase of Connections, which entails the delivery of middle / high school outreach programs as well as college level programs, such as academic support, residential life programs, work study opportunities, career management classes, and scholarships for women studying engineering. She brings extensive management experience from industry including running a profitable startup company. Reisberg will coordinate project's multiple tasks including data collection, data analysis, and project dissemination.

Joe Raelin (NU) brings a 35-year career on human resource scholarship to the "Pathways" proposal. Raelin is the Asa Knowles Chair of Practice-Oriented Education at Northeastern and Professor in the D'Amore-McKim School of Business. His background is commensurate with the social science domain of the Pathways Project. A Ph.D. in policy studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Raelin received his formal training as an employment researcher. Since then, he has produced over 100 journal publications. His first of seven books was the frame-breaking Building A Career, an Upjohn Institute-sponsored analysis of the effect of first job experiences on subsequent employment and one of the first volumes to use path analysis to identify career patterns among young men and women. He will have direct oversight of the design of the survey methodology, which will provide the principal data for the study, and will supervise the statistical analysis of the data. website

Sara Wadia-Fascetti (NU) has been involved with women in engineering programs since her first years as an Assistant Professor in 1994. Wadia-Fascetti created and led the development of the Connections program to strengthen the pathways for women to pursue careers in engineering and science. She maintains a research program in the area of sensing and diagnostics of civil infrastructure systems and half of her research mentees have been women. Wadia-Fascetti received the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring for leadership in individual mentoring of women and the development of programs that fosters career development. Sara is currently an Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Programs.

from Rochester Institute of Technology

Dr. Margaret B. Bailey, PE (RIT) a Professor of Mechanical Engineering within the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) located in Rochester, New York. Dr. Bailey is also the Founding Executive Director for the nationally recognized women in engineering program called WE@RIT. WE@RIT is dedicated to expanding the representation of women engineers and women leaders within the engineering profession. WE@RIT received the WEPAN 2008 Women in Engineering Program Award in recognition of its vast program offerings and impact. In recognition of leadership in developing WE@RIT, Professor Bailey is the recipient of the 2008Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award with praise for the extraordinary quality of the WE@RIT program and for her exceptional vision and leadership for the program. Dr. Bailey is the 2011 recipient of the Edwina Award for Gender Diversity and Inclusiveness in recognition of her significant contributions in supporting gender diversity initiatives at RIT. At the Institute level, Dr. Bailey serves as Faculty Associate to the Provost for Female Faculty and she co-chairs the President’s Commission on Women. In these roles, she leads efforts to create strategies to increase the representation of women undergraduate students and improve recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty. From 2003-2009, Dr. Bailey held the inaugural Kate Gleason Endowed Chair which is a college-level position named in honor of Kate Gleason who was an inspiring entrepreneurial engineer from Rochester and the first female member inducted into the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the early 1900’s.

Within her college, Dr. Bailey teaches energy related courses, and serves as a mentor and advisor to undergraduate and graduate mechanical engineering students who are involved in her research. Dr. Bailey has taught courses related to Thermodynamics, heat transfer, controls, sustainability, engineering and public policy, and design. She is actively involved in curricular development and assessment activities ranging from individual courses to college and institute wide programs. Past areas of activity include the development of a revised Energy and the Environment Option for the ME Department; a new minor in Sustainable Product Development; and a comprehensive engineering ethics program for her college. Dr. Bailey and her graduate students conduct research in Thermodynamic analyses of complex, energy intensive systems such as coal-fired power plants and commercial refrigeration plants. Professor Bailey further explores the area of Thermodynamics as co-author on a major engineering textbook, Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, 7th Edition with Drs. Moran, Shapiro, and Boettner.

from Virginia Tech

Peggy Layne (VT) P.E., Director, AdvanceVT and Faculty Projects, joined Virginia Tech in 2003 as director of AdvanceVT, a National Science Foundation sponsored program to increase the number and success of women faculty in science and engineering. She is currently Assistant Provost reporting to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, where her responsibilities include faculty recruitment, development, and reporting. Prior to accepting her current position, Ms. Layne worked as a diversity consultant for the American Association of Engineering Societies and as director of the program on diversity in the engineering workforce at the National Academy of Engineering. She also spent a year as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the office of Senator Bob Graham.

Ms. Layne has degrees in environmental and water resources engineering and science and technology studies. She spent 17 years as a consulting engineer in the fields of water and wastewater treatment and hazardous waste site investigation. Ms. Layne is a registered professional engineer, an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and served as president of the Society of Women Engineers in 1996-97.

Leslie K. Pendleton (VT) Director of Undergraduate Student Affairs and instructor for Electrical & Computer Engineering and Women Studies in The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (VT). She has been a member of the Advisory Board through the summer of 2010. She is switching responsibilities with Carol Burger and is taking on the responsibilities of co-PI as of September 2010 and will supervise all aspects of the project at Virginia Tech.

from University of Wyoming

Jerry Hamann (UW) is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was the original director of the Hewlett Foundation Engineering Schools of the West Initiative at the University of Wyoming. In that capacity he was tasked with developing and sustaining programs that are focused upon recruitment and retention of undergraduate students in engineering. He has worked extensively with programs that bring K-12 educators together with university and community college faculty to provide applied math and science investigations within the K-12 curriculum base. Jerry maintains research programs in applied signal processing, robotics and control, as well as communication networks and instrumentation. He has authored five book chapters, 22 refereed journal articles, and 48 conference manuscripts. He will coordinate data collection efforts at UW.

David Whitman (UW) has been involved, as both a faculty member and a former Associate Dean, in many activities that are associated with recruitment and retention of engineering undergraduates - especially women. Some of these projects include the formation of Power Groups (a blocked schedule for incoming freshmen to promote the development of study groups), two floors in the residence halls that are specifically for engineering majors (including 25% women), and working with the Middle School Girls Camp in the summer. Whitman will coordinate data collection efforts at UW in conjunction with Hamann.

Nicholas Vasilopoulos is a senior staff scientist with the assessment firm HumRRO - Human Resources Research Organization. He will work closely with Raelin to perform the statistical analysis of the data.

Advisory Board: An Advisory Board, composed of the Project Team and outstanding engineering educators and administrators who develop and conduct policy initiatives, programs, and research on issues important to women and university faculty with research interests in gender and engineering issues, will assist the Project Team with planning and implementation of the project components. The advisors will review and assist in developing the survey instrument, and they will help identify outlets for the dissemination of the research findings.

Members include:

 

Pathways Proposal

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (Award #NSF-0827490)