A&T Honor Grad Named ASEE President

Stephanie G. Adams, engineering dean, Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University, has been selected as the 2018-19 American Society of Engineering Education President.

Adams will serve a one-year term in that position beginning in June 2018 and then for one year as president. She is a fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).

“I’m humbled and honored that my peers have selected me to serve as President-Elect of this prestigious organization that has given me so much," Dean Adams said in an email to USBE.

In her vision statement on the ASEE website, the dean recalled how she was introduced to ASEE as a high school student by her father in the 1980s.

"He was a regular conference attendee and even planned our 1981 family vacation to coincide with the annual ASEE conference," she said.

"Seventeen years and three engineering degrees later, I attended my first conference in Seattle. I recall feeling inspired, and very welcomed. I was energized that so many were concerned with the education of engineering and engineering technology professionals. And I was inspired by the passion of our members to advance our profession."

'Honor graduate of North Carolina A&T State University'

Adams has won more than $12 million in research grants as principal investigator or co-principal investigator and authored more than 75 scholarly publications.

An honor graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, she received a master's degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia in 1991 and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering from Texas A&M University in 1998.

Her research interests include broadening engineering participation; faculty and graduate student development; international and global education; teamwork and team effectiveness, and quality control and management.

Adams is a leader in the advancement and inclusion of all in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

She has worked with a number of organizations on graduate education, mentoring, faculty development and diversifying STEM. They include the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, NASA MUST (Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology) Program and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

'Trailblazing career'

Before being appointed a department chair at Virginia Tech in 2011, Adams served as associate dean for undergraduate studies in the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University from 2008 to 2010.

The decade before, she was a faculty member and administrator in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She also served two years as a program officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Among her many recognitions, Adams received a 2003 CAREER award from NSF to support her goal of designing, developing and validating a model for the facilitation of effective teaming in the engineering classroom.

Adams also received the 2008 DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award from the American Society of Engineering Education and the Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Award from the National Society of Black Engineers.

The ASEE is the leading authority on the education of engineering professionals and advances access at all levels of education for the engineering profession.