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Biosketches of Organizing Committee Members and Rapporteur
Eli Fromm, Chair, is the Roy A. Brothers University Professor, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of the Center for Educational Research in the College of Engineering of Drexel University. He has been Principal Investigator of a number of bioengineering research projects involving implantable transmitters and sensors, Principal Investigator of the Drexel E4 educational reform project and of the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition. His academic leadership positions have included Vice President for Educational Research, Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, and interim Dean of Engineering at Drexel. He has also held positions with the General Electric and Dupont companies, the Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives as a staff member and Congressional Fellow, Program Director at NSF, and Visiting Scientist with the Legislative Office of Research Liaison of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the AIMBE, a recipient of awards and honors from IEEE, ASEE, ABET, Smithsonian Institution, Drexel University, and is the inaugural recipient of the Bernard M. Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering. Professor Fromm was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004
Woodie C. Flowers is the Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas are engineering design and product development. His current research includes work on the creative design process and product development systems. He helped create MIT’s renowned course “Introduction to Design.” Flowers received national recognition in his role as host for the PBS television series Scientific American Frontiers from 1990 to 1993 and received a New England EMMY Award for a special PBS program on design. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Daniel Webster College. He was recently selected to receive a Public Service Medal from NASA and the Tower Medallion from Louisiana Tech University. At MIT, he is a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, an honor bestowed for extraordinary contributions to undergraduate education. He was also the inaugural recipient of the Woodie Flowers Award by FIRST, a national organization that promotes youth involvement in science and technology. Currently, Flowers is a director of four companies and is on the board of Technology Review magazine. He is a member of the Lemelson-MIT Prize Board Executive Committee, is National Advisor and Vice Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board for FIRST; and is a member of the Historical Commission in Weston, Massachusetts. Professor Flowers was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1994.
Sherra Kerns is F. W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founding Vice President for Innovation and Research at the F. W. Olin College. Kerns came to Olin from Vanderbilt University, where she was a senior faculty member and held various posts, including Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional
University Consortium for Research on Electronics in Space. A Fellow of the IEEE, Kerns is the recipient of IEEE’s prestigious Millennium Medal and the IEEE Education Society's Harriet B. Rigas Award. Kerns has also received many awards for outstanding undergraduate teaching, and has been very active nationally in promoting engineering education. She has been named to the Advisory Committee for the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education and the Steering Committee for the NAE Engineer of 2020 Phase II: Engineering Education in the New Century initiative. She is the Past President of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the nation’s premier society for technical education and is a Fellow of the ASEE. She also serves as an Executive Committee member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the accreditation body for engineering programs in the U.S. At Olin College, she is pioneering a unique administrative position with responsibility for enhancing faculty intellectual vitality, providing opportunities for students to learn through discovery, and building a culture that rewards innovation and the taking of appropriate risks.
Lueny Morell is director of engineering education innovation at HP Labs. Her job entails working with the higher education community and leading academic institutions on everything from research and student recruitment to customer and government relations and policy advocacy. She is also involved in curriculum development, advising industry, facilitating accreditation initiatives, supporting student and faculty research, and philanthropic projects. Before joining HP in 2002, Professor Morell had a 24-year career at the University of Puerto Rico, where she held various positions, both at the Mayaguez Campus (UPRM) and the system level. A full professor of chemical engineering, she was director of the UPRM Research and Development Center, a member to the Academic Senate and Administrative Board, and special assistant to the chancellor and dean of engineering in charge of strategic alliances, new educational initiatives, and outcome assessment. Professor Morell also coordinated the ABET 2000 accreditation for UPRM. A licensed professional engineer and certified ABET evaluator, she has done professional consulting work and is a member of many professional and honorary societies, including Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Alpha Delta Kappa, American Society of Electrical Engineers, and American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Professor Morell has more than 40 scientific and educational papers to her credit and has received many honors during her academic career.
Teri Reed-Rhoads is Assistant Dean of Engineering for Undergraduate Education and Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Purdue University. In addition, she is director of the institute for P-12 engineering research and learning (INSPIRE). Reed-Rhoads’ teaching interests include engineering statistics, quality engineering and introductory freshman engineering courses. Her research interests include statistics education, concept inventory development, assessment and evaluation of learning and programs, recruitment and retention topics, diversity, equity, and P-12 engineering education outreach. She has received funding from a number of National Science Foundation programs, the Department of Education, various foundations, and industry. She is an active participant in the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Educational Research Association, and the Institute of Electronics and
Electrical Engineers as well as being a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the American Statistical Association.
Alan Tucker is Distinguished Teaching Professor and Undergraduate Director in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Stony Brook University. He has been at Stony Brook since 1970, serving as chair or undergraduate program director for over 30 years. His research specialty is graph theory. He has been active in a range of educational studies and reports by the Mathematical Association of America and American Mathematical Society, serving as project director in several. His links to engineering include membership on the Advisory Committee of the NAE Center for Advanced Study in Engineering Education and locally at Stony Brook serving as chair of the Executive Committee of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences for the past 10 years.
Ryan C. Davison is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academies. He earned a PhD in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in May 2007. His graduate research implemented a sophisticated form of electrophysiology which allowed for the activity patterns of single neurons in non-anesthetized, behaving primates to be measured. As a post-doctoral Fellow at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, he characterized the visual system by implanting strain gauges and muscle force transducers in extraocular muscles in order to better understand the relationship between motor neuron firing rates and muscle contractile forces. His Fellowship with NAE allowed him to promote public awareness of critical science and engineering issues and learn a great deal about engineering education curricula. He is a voracious consumer of political information and currently pursuing a career in science education policy.