Current Team Members

Russell L. Pimmel
Principal Investigator
Dr. Pimmel is an emeritus professor at the University of Alabama and a recently retired Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at National Science Foundation. In addition, he has held faculty positions at Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Missouri at Columbia; he worked as an engineer at Emerson Electric, Battelle Northwest Laboratory, and McDonnell-Douglas. His research interests focus on collaborative learning and faculty development with a special interest in virtual approaches. His three degrees are in Electrical Engineering with a B.S. from St Louis University and a M.S. and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

Ann F. McKenna
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. McKenna is Chair of the Department of Engineering in the College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU). Prior to joining ASU she served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education, and was on the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. McKenna’s research focuses on understanding the cognitive and social processes of design, design teaching and learning, the role of adaptive expertise in design and innovation, the impact and diffusion of education innovations, and teaching approaches of engineering faculty. Dr. McKenna received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. McKenna also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education.

Norman L. Fortenberry
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Fortenberry is the executive director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Previously, Fortenberry served as the founding Director of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He served in various executive roles at the National Science Foundation (NSF) including as senior advisor to the NSF Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources and as director of the divisions of undergraduate education and human resource development. Fortenberry has also served as executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (The GEM Consortium) and as a faculty member in the department of mechanical engineering at the Florida A&M University – Florida State University College of Engineering. Dr. Fortenberry was awarded the S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. degrees (all in mechanical engineering) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Rocio C. Chavela Guerra
Rocio Chavela is Manager of Faculty Development at the American Society forEngineering Education (ASEE). She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University, a B.S. and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Universidad de las Americas, Puebla in Mexico. Rocio’s current efforts focus on engineering faculty and graduate student development, with particular emphasis on the adoption of evidence-based instructional practices.

 

Brian L. Yoder, PhD
Brian L. Yoder is director of Assessment, Evaluation, and Institutional Research at the American Society for Engineering Education guiding the overall direction of research and evaluation activities.  He oversees annual data collection for ASEE’s benchmark surveys of engineering schools and leads research and evaluation of federally funded and foundation-funded projects in areas related to engineering education and STEM education.  Prior to working at ASEE, Brian worked at NASA Education, overseeing the development of an on-line performance management system to assess NASA’s educational investments nationally.  He also serves as President of the Washington Evaluators, a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association.

Katherine Muto-Nelson
Katie just recently finished her PhD at ASU and is currently working as a post doc for Dr. Ann McKenna. Her research interests include complexity learning, cognition, motivation, and professional development.

 

 

 

Advisory Committee Members (2013-2014)

Alan Cheville
Professor
Jefferson Miers Chair 
Electrical Engineering
Bucknell University

James Groves
Associate Professor
Assistant Dean for Research and Outreach
Director, Engineers PRODUCED in Virginia program
Material Science and Engineering
University of Virginia

Ricardo Jacquez
Professor
Civil Engineering
New Mexico State University

John Kelly
Chair
Electrical and Computer Engineering
North Carolina A&T State University

Krishnan Shankar
Professor, Chair 
Biomedical Engineering
Wentworth Institute of Technology

Debra Larson
Dean 
College of Engineering
Cal Poly

Gregory Ligth
Director
Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching
Northwestern University

Joseph Tront
W.S. “Pete” White Professor of Innovation in Engineering Education
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Tech