Recent events have brought to light the gravity of the challenges that our society faces today relative to systemic racism and its impact on equity and access in our society. Marginalized groups face daily micro-aggressions and bias due to the impacts of systemic racism. Recently, the NAE hosted their annual meeting and included a keynote speaker, Dr. John Slaughter, who has committed his life’s work to dismantling racism specifically in engineering education. Dr. Slaughter called the organization and members to recognize the challenges that systemic racism poses for the engineering field and to take action in changing the way our students are educated. Dr. Slaughter pointed out that without an inclusive engineering workforce, we are missing viable and important solutions to engineering problems.
As engineering leadership educators, our obligation to our students extends beyond transmission of technical knowledge. We have a responsibility to infuse our curriculum with knowledge of systemic racism, how bias can impact our solutions, and how engineers can lead and create teams that foster belonging and inclusivity. The fabric of our society has become fragile and is breaking apart, rapidly. We must help engineering leadership students develop a growth mindset and discover the sophistication of mind to celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in their daily lives, school, and workplace. This requires us to consider inclusive leadership as a foundational approach to engineering leadership development.
Inclusive leadership has been shown to positively impact team performance, decision-making, collaboration, innovation, and motivation. Inclusive leaders celebrate differences and recognize and challenge attacks on DEI. As engineering leadership educators, we must lead by example, model inclusive leadership behavior, and have courage to infuse these concepts into our curriculum.
This paper assembles the collective thoughts, perspectives, insights, and experiences of a distinguished panel of educators and scholars on embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and teaching practices. The panel brings together people from multiple universities, different stages of their career, with interests in various areas related to DEI. It includes John Slaughter who has devoted his life to combatting racism, to scholars whose research is dedicated to teaching about DEI and creating a work environment that values DEI, and educators who have found creative ways to incorporate DEI in their instruction of engineering courses. The panel and this paper will have recommendations on why it is important to welcome DEI in our workplace and in our classrooms, how to embrace DEI in designing and delivering our courses, and teaching strategies to celebrate and support DEI as we prepare students for the workforce.
Jena Asgarpoor has been on the faculty at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln since August 2017. She is a Professor of Practice and the Director for the Master of Engineering Management Program in the College of Engineering. Dr. Asgarpoor received her Ph. D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Engineering Management, from Texas A&M University in College Station, where she had previously earned a B.A. in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude). Prior to UNL, she was a professor at Bellevue University (Bellevue, Nebraska) for 26 years. She is an officer in the Engineering Leadership Development (LEAD) and Engineering Management (EMD) divisions of ASEE, and also active in the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM).
Meg Handley is currently the Associate Director for Engineering Leadership Outreach at Penn State University. Previously, Meg served as the Director of the Career & Corporate Connection's office at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. Meg completed her PhD in Workforce Education at Penn State, where she focused on interpersonal behaviors and their impact on engineering leadership potential.
Meg is a board certified coach with experience in developing students' leadership and professional competencies through teaching and one-on-one coaching. She is most interested in developing student knowledge of leadership to impact their successful transition to the workplace.
Dr. Alisha Sarang-Sieminski is an associate dean and a professor of engineering at Olin College. They have taken a winding career path, starting with a BS in chemical engineering from MIT, moving to a PhD in bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania
A former Director of the National Science Foundation, Chancellor of the University of Maryland,
College Park, and President of Occidental College, Dr. Slaughter has served for many years as a
leader in the education, engineering and scientific communities. He is well known for his
commitment to increasing diversity in higher education with a special focus on the STEM
disciplines.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering — where he has served on the Committee on
Minorities in Engineering, co-chaired its Action Forum on Engineering Workforce Diversity and
served two terms on the NAE Council — he is also the recipient of the Academy’s Arthur M.
Bueche Award in 2004. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, he was elected to the Tau Beta Pi honorary Engineering Society and was named Eminent
Member of the Eta Kappa Nu Honorary Electrical Engineering Association. He is a member of Phi
Beta Kappa and in1993, Dr. Slaughter was named to the American Society for Engineering
Education Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the society’s Centennial Medal. He received the
UCLA Medal of Excellence in 1989, was elected to the Kansas State University Engineering Hall of
Fame in 1990, received the Roger Revelle Award from the University of California, San Diego in
1991 and was named that institution’s Alumnus of the Year in 1982.
Dr. Slaughter, a licensed professional engineer, began his career as an electronics engineer at
General Dynamics and, later, served for 15 years at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory in San
Diego, where he became head of the Information Systems Technology Department. He has also
been director of the Applied Physics Laboratory and professor of electrical engineering at the
University of Washington, Academic Vice President and Provost at Washington State University,
the Irving R. Melbo Professor of Leadership in Education at the University of Southern California
and, until his return to USC in January 2010, president and CEO of the National Action Council
for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) from August 2000 to September 2009.
Among the boards of directors on which he has served are IBM, Northrop Grumman, Monsanto,
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., Sovran Bank, Union Bank, Avery Dennison, Atlantic Richfield
(ARCO) and Solutia, Inc. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as Assistant Director and,
later, as Director of the National Science Foundation and by President George W. Bush to
membership on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Dr. Slaughter earned a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the University of California, San Diego
(UCSD), an M.S. in Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.S.
in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University. He holds honorary degrees from 30
colleges and universities. Recipient of the first U.S. Black Engineer of the Year Award in 1987, Dr.
Slaughter was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. National Award in 1997.
He and his wife, Dr. Ida Bernice Slaughter, herself an educational leader, have two children: a son,
John Brooks Slaughter II, D.V.M., and a daughter, Ms. Jacqueline Michelle Slaughter, a university
administrator and doctoral student in educational administration.
Dr. Meagan Pollock envisions a world where personal and social circumstances are not obstacles to achieving potential, and where kindness, inclusivity, and conservation prevail. As an engineer turned educator for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Meagan focuses on engineering equity into education and the workforce. An international speaker, teacher, engineer, and equity leader, her mission is to provide services, tools, and resources that inspire awareness and initiate action. Learn more at EngineerInclusion.com.
http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-3849-2947
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
[biography]
Dr. Homero Murzi is the Director of Engineering Education and Associate Professor in the OPUS College of Engineering at Marquette University and honorary Professor at the University of Los Andes (Venezuela). Homero is the leader of the Engineering Competencies, Learning, and Interdisciplinary Practices for Success (ECLIPS) Lab. His research focuses on developing engineering education practices that prepare graduate students and faculty members with the tools to promote effective and inclusive learning environments. 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, a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and was inducted into the Bouchet Honor Society. Homero serves as the Chair for the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN). 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.
Monica F. Cox, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Prior to this appointment, she was an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, the Inaugural Director of the College of Engineering's Leadership Minor, and the Director of the International Institute of Engineering Education Assessment (i2e2a). In 2013, she became founder and owner of STEMinent LLC, a company focused on STEM education assessment and professional development for stakeholders in K-12 education, higher education, and Corporate America. Her research is focused upon the use of mixed methodologies to explore significant research questions in undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineering education, to integrate concepts from higher education and learning science into engineering education, and to develop and disseminate reliable and valid assessment tools for use across the engineering education continuum.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.