Please note that this is not a comprehensive list. This page is updated periodically.

Dr. Cimino teaches in Rowan University’s Freshman and Sophomore Engineering Clinics, aiming to provide Rowan’s engineering students with a firm grasp on engineering principles that they can take with them into their majors and beyond. Dr. Cimino’s research interests include the engineering ethics and ethical decision making, as well as diversity and inclusion. Identifying as gay, Dr. Cimino joined the VCP as a way to connect with other LGBT+ and allies in higher education.

Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the Oregon State University College of Engineering. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont. Dr. Cotilla-Sanchez has over 10 years of experience in power system protection and reliability, with a focus on cascading outages in power systems. Cotilla-Sanchez is the Secretary of the IEEE Cascading Failures Working Group and President of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Oregon Chapter. He joined the VCP to connect with a trusted network of colleagues, learn, and help underrepresented individuals navigating engineering.

Tiago Forin works as an engineering instructor and the RED Project Coordinator at Rowan University. He is an alumnus of Florida State and Purdue with a focus in civil and environmental engineering and engineering education. He is an out and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. He has always wanted to be part of a gay-friendly STEM group and as a result, joined the VCP as a way to help develop a community within engineering.

Carolyn Harris has served as Manager of Academic Programs and Student Affairs at Brown University’s School of Engineering since 2017. Carolyn earned her Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Higher Education Administration (HEA) from Northeastern University, Boston, and has completed coursework for her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in HEA, also at Northeastern. Carolyn is very fond of Beagles (mischievous, but so happy!) and enjoys everything about being outdoors, even in the winter (sans bitter cold). Carolyn joined VCP to keep current with how she can best support the diversity within her STEM community.

I joined the VCP because I want to engage in vibrant communities that shift the engineering paradigm from tolerant “don’t ask, don’t tell” ideals to welcoming, safe, and inclusive environments that both honor and celebrate our differences.

Dr. Brandi P. Jones is Vice Dean for Diversity and Strategic Initiatives and Associate Professor of Engineering Education Practice at University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering.  She is responsible for leading and directing equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives.  She works collaboratively with colleagues on strategies to increase the diversity and enhance the experiences of students, faculty, and staff, ensure an inclusive culture, and promote retention through activities, programs, and events. Her office assists in the creation of a training curriculum for faculty and graduate students on topics that support inclusive excellence and cultural competency.  Dr. Jones assumes a leadership role in the national engineering diversity and inclusion conversation regarding standards, benchmarks and best practices. She brings 20 years of experience and proven track record of success in higher education administration, diversity, outreach, and student development.  She joined the VCP to help create and foster inclusive learning environments.

Rohit Kandakatla is currently a Ph.D. candidate in School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has his bachelors and masters in Electrical Engineering from India. He currently serves as the Chair-elect of the ASEE Student Division as has been an active member of the international engineering education community while serving as the President of Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED) and as the Vice-President of Student Engagement for the International Federation for Engineering Education Societies (IFEES). His research interests include education policy, faculty development in higher education, integration of technology and entrepreneurship in engineering education, and service learning. For his dissertation, Rohit is evaluating how engineering faculty in India develop Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, a framework used to help instructors effectively integrate educational technology tools into their courses. Rohit joined the VCP to become an ally and advocate towards ensuring social justice to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Brian Kirkmeyer is a strong supporter of LGBTQ representation, rights, equity, inclusion. Delegate for LGBTQ Inclusion for ASEE Committee for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion.

Donna Crystal Llewellyn is the founding Executive Director of the Institute for STEM and Diversity Initiatives and a Professor in the College of Innovation and Design at Boise State University. Donna spent her first career at Georgia Institute of Technology as a faculty member in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and then as the Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and Associate Vice Provost for Learning Excellence. While Donna’s technical research interests were originally in Combinatorial Optimization, her current interests center around education issues in general, and in particular on increasing access and success of those traditionally under-represented and/or under-served in STEM higher education. Donna joined the VCP because she sees this community as an opportunity to help her learn more and be in a better position to help students and faculty in the LGBTQ+ populations to have access to STEM fields and to succeed in them.

Karen Magee-Sauer is a Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. She received her PhD from University of Wisconsin, Madison, and B.S. Physics degree from the University of Virginia. Karen served as the Dean of the College of Science & Mathematics at Rowan for past four years (2014-2018) before returning to the faculty. Prior to assuming the Dean’s position, she was Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Karen is dedicated to increasing the participation of women, under-represented minorities and other non-dominant groups in physics and other STEM fields. She currently serves on the Committee on Education and Education Policy Committee of the American Physical Society.

Adam S. Masters (they/them/theirs) earned their Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware and is currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Adam researches and advocates for access and equity in engineering.

Dr. Joel Alejandro (Alex) Mejia is an assistant professor of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. His interest in advocating for and supporting LGBTQ+ students led him join the VCP. His current research investigates how the integration of funds of knowledge and engineering design can serve as a pathway to and through engineering. Dr. Mejia’s primary research interests lie at the intersection of engineering education and social justice. He is particularly interested in the integration of Chicanx Cultural Studies frameworks and pedagogies in engineering education, and the development of critical consciousness in engineering through social justice.

Dr. Krishna Pakala is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. He teaches courses in the thermal and fluid science discipline including a first-year course. He is the Faculty in Residence for the Engineering and Innovation Residential College and also the Faculty Associate for Mobile Learning. He serves as the Assistant Director for the Industrial Assessment Center at Boise State. He received his Bachelors at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and Masters from Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from University of Wyoming. All his major study was in the field of Mechanical Engineering. His academic research interests include innovative teaching and learning strategies, use of emerging technologies, and mobile teaching and learning strategies. He is the recipient of ASEE PNW Section Outstanding Teaching Award. He serves as the campus representative (ASEE) and also as the Treasurer (PNW Section).

I am a third year PhD student at Boston University. My field of research is applied electromagnetics in the renewable energy line.

Donna Riley is Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Education and Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. From 2013-2015 she served as Program Director for Engineering Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Riley spent thirteen years as a founding faculty member of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college. In 2005 she received a NSF CAREER award on implementing and assessing pedagogies of liberation in engineering classrooms. Riley is the author of two books, Engineering and Social Justice and Engineering Thermodynamics and 21st Century Energy Problems.  She received the 2010 Educator of the Year award from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), and is a Fellow of ASEE. Riley earned a B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering and Public Policy.

I grew up in Miami, was born in México, and was raised by the Colombian side of my family. My Latino background is diverse. My educational background is also diverse, having attended two different universities and two community colleges in Florida to acquire my bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. Eventually, I moved to the Midwest for graduate school and earned my master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. Now, I am pursuing a PhD in engineering education where I’m examining the experiences of intersectional LGBTQ+ Latinx engineering students. I joined the VCP because it was one of the first places where I felt my gay and engineering identities could be openly discussed, coalesced together, and supported by ally’s and community members.

Isaac Sabat is an assistant professor in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology department and diversity science cluster at Texas A&M University. His program of research broadly focuses on understanding and improving the working lives of stigmatized employees. He is particularly interested in examining strategies in which these employees can engage, such as disclosing or acknowledging their identities, to effectively remediate the workplace obstacles that they face. He has published this work in journals such as Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business and Psychology, and Journal of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.

Andrew P. Sabelhaus is a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, and a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow at the NASA Ames Research Center Intelligent Robotics Group. Drew’s research develops the control systems and mechanical designs of walking four-legged (quadruped) robots with flexible spines. He has authored 10 research papers on robotics control systems and design, 8 of which involve tension-network (tensegrity) structures, the type of system used in his current work. Drew has mentored a diverse group of over 30 undergraduate and masters’ students at UC Berkeley since 2012. He was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow from 2012-2015. Drew joined the ASEE VCP as part of his advocacy for LGBTQ+ people in engineering.

Alisha is interested in making change – institutionally and individually. Their work takes uses a social justice lens and a human-centered design approach to amplifying voices and maximizing mobility, broadly defined. They joined the VCP to find community and share ideas.

I am a biomedical engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and my doctoral research focused on vascular tissue mechanics, cell-derived tissue, and biomaterials. Now I focus on teaching engineering design and biomaterials using project-based learning and universal design principles to make my classroom as inclusive as possible. I am also very active on my campus with the LGBTQ+ community including as the faculty advisor for our student group, a facilitator and member of our Safe Zone committee, and a researcher on an NSF grant focused on the experiences of LGBTQ+ students at WPI. I feel very strongly that all students, regardless of socioeconomic access, race, gender, sex, ability, orientation, or religion should have equal access to learning resources and should be considered when designing new educational resources and when modifying old ones. This belief drives a lot of my work on and off campus.

Kyle Trenshaw is currently the Educational Development Specialist at the University of Rochester’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri in 2009, and his M.S. (2011) and Ph.D. (2014) in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; supporting diversity in STEM fields with an emphasis on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) students; and using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to improve students’ communication skills during group work.

I’ve spent my career at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. I’m currently at Olin College as a visiting professor. I joined the VCP because I wanted to understand how to be an ally to my students. While I have been on the periphery of the LGBTQ community all my life, I have never stood openly in solidarity with this community. Now is the time.

Nancy Williams has taught chemistry for the Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges since 2003. Her work is in the field of mechanistic organometallic chemistry, and she teaches general chemistry, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry as well as interdisciplinary courses. Nancy came out as a queer trans woman in 2013, and has been involved in the LGBTQIA+ community in a number of ways, from political advocacy to singing with the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.