visit author page

Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech
Chair of ASEE's CDEI during the Year of Impact on Racial Equity

visit author page

visit author page

Yareni holds a manufacturing engineer degree from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL), Mexico. She has worked in the Applied Optimization Group at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) as part of her research internship in the Department of Industrial Engineering. Afterwards, she earned a master’s degree from the Graduate Program in Systems Engineering of the UANL, and her second master’s degree in Materials and Manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (INME) in the UPRM. Yareni commitment for an inclusive and diverse community in the campus led her to serve as Spokesperson in the International University Community at UPRM. Yareni has worked as an Instructor of engineering courses, as Graphics Engineering and Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, in the Department of General Engineering of at UPRM. She has worked as an instructor of the Biosensors and Biological Geometric Design courses, and as a research assistant in the Biocompatible Materials Research Group at UANL. Her professional career includes also being a quality engineer in the manufacturing processes for a biomedical devices' company in Puerto Rico. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and her research focuses on bioengineering. She has participated in several events in Puerto Rico and Mexico as a mentor and woman in STEM to encourage young girls and women to pursue STEM careers.

visit author page

visit author page

Paschal is the Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University. A biomedical engineer, her background is in medical imaging technologies and their application to the study of cardiopulmonary physiology. Her interests include approaches to supporting the success of all students in engineering and inclusivity in engineering education.

visit author page

visit author page

Becki Atadero is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. She earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from CSU in 2002, and her Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2006. Dr. Atadero conducts collaborative research in the field of engineering education with particular emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in engineering. She has served as PI on three education related grants funded by the National Science Foundation, and a prior paper by the P4E research team was awarded Best Diversity Paper at the ASEE Annual Conference in 2015. She also conducts technical research with civil engineering and construction management graduate students. She and her students study ways to extend the safe and useful life of existing structures, particularly concrete bridges, through enhanced inspection, management and repair techniques. This research has been funded by the Mountain Plains Consortium, a USDOT University Transportation Center, and the Colorado Department of Transportation. She teaches courses in structural engineering such as reinforced and prestressed concrete design and civil engineering materials to upper division undergraduates and graduate students. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado.

visit author page

visit author page

Faculty in Biomedical Engineering and Interim Assoc Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Iowa

visit author page

visit author page

Desen Ozkan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and the Institute for Research on Learning and Education (IRLI). She holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in engineering education and a B.S. from Tufts University in Chemical Engineering. Her primary research is on interdisciplinarity and engineering decisions as they relate to broader social, political, and economic contexts.

visit author page

visit author page

I have been a science librarian at the University of Pennsylvania since 2015. I also teach an online graduate-level "Intro to IT for Libraries & Information Settings" course at Rutgers University, where I earned a Master of Library and Information Science degree. I have a BS in Family & Consumer Sciences Education & Studies with a minor in Engineering Studies from Iowa State University.

visit author page

visit author page

Dr. Homero Murzi (he/él/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech with honorary appointments at the University of Queensland (Australia) and University of Los Andes (Venezuela). Homero is the leader of the Engineering Competencies, Learning, and Inclusive Practices for Success (ECLIPS) Lab where he leads a team focused on doing research on contemporary, culturally relevant, and inclusive pedagogical practices, emotions in engineering, competency development, and understanding the experiences of traditionally marginalized people (e.g., Latinx, international students, Indigenous students) in engineering from an asset-based perspective. Homero is interested in understanding how to develop effective and culturally relevant learning environments that can promote the sustainable competencies engineering students require to succeed in the contemporary workforce. His goal is to develop engineering education practices that value the capital that traditionally marginalized students, bring into the field. Homero aspires to change discourses around broadening participation in engineering and promoting action to change. Homero has been recognized as a Diggs Teaching Scholar, a Graduate Academy for Teaching Excellence Fellow, a Global Perspectives Fellow, a Diversity Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar, an inductee into the Bouchet Honor Society, and received the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Homero serves as the VT Engineering Education Chair for Equity and Inclusion, and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Incoming Chair for the Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI). He holds degrees in Industrial Engineering (BS, MS) from the National Experimental University of Táchira, Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Temple University, and Engineering Education (PhD) from Virginia Tech.

visit author page

visit author page

Elizabeth (Liz) Litzler, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity (CERSE) at the University of Washington (UW) and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in UW Sociology. She was the 2020-2021 Chair of the ASEE Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI). She is a former Board Member of Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) and the recipient of the 2020 WEPAN Founders Award. She has led social science research projects such as the UW portion of NSF funded Revolutionizing Engineering Departments Participatory Action Research (REDPAR) and the Sloan funded Project to Assess Climate in Engineering (PACE). She also manages program evaluations that provide actionable strategies to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields. This includes evaluation of NSF ADVANCE, S-STEM, INCLUDES, and IUSE projects, and climate studies of students, faculty, and staff. Her social science research covers many topics and has used critical race theories such as Community Cultural Wealth to describe the experiences of systemically marginalized students in engineering.

visit author page

visit author page

Nicole Adia Jefferson is an Engineering Education Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering & Technology and M.S. in Computer Science HCI, from Virginia State University, Petersburg, Va. Nicole is current member of The Research’s Impact on Society and Education (RISE) Research Group where she is a GRA for CAREER: Disrupting the Status Quo Regarding Who Gets to be an Engineer.

visit author page