ELATE National Leadership Program Announces First Class of Fellows

They hail from some of the nation’s leading universities in technology and engineering. They bring with them diverse and wide-ranging experiences and backgrounds. The senior women faculty that have been chosen for the inaugural class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering program at Drexel University are set to break new ground in leadership and innovative capacity building.

ELATE at Drexel™, a program of the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics at Drexel University College of Medicine, is a one-year, part-time program that addresses the need to increase the diversity and leadership capacity of engineering, computer science and related fields within academe. This need is well established - although women receive 21.5 percent of engineering Ph.D.’s awarded in the United States, they account for only five percent of full professor positions and only 11 percent (41 of 379) go on to become engineering department heads (data from NSF and ASEE).

"Drexel Engineering is excited about this first class of ELATE Fellows. Their academic credentials are superb and their institutions are providing remarkable support for their leadership development," says Dr. Joseph Hughes, Dean of Drexel University College of Engineering. "This national program will build a platform for women to advance in leadership roles in academic institutions, and I appreciate our colleagues who are contributing to its development as advisers and facilitators."

This inaugural class of Fellows will embark on a curriculum that will increase personal and professional leadership effectiveness, develop knowledge of organizational dynamics of their colleges and universities, improve strategic management of finances and resources, and lay the foundation for a community of exceptional women who will bring organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to the institutions and society they serve. Facilitated by leaders in the fields of engineering, technology, and leadership development, the curriculum utilizes lessons of leadership that move from the classroom into on-the-job application at each Fellow’s home institution.

The Fellowship year culminates in the completion of an Institutional Action Project, developed in collaboration with the Fellows’ dean or provost. These action projects are designed to address an institutional or departmental need or priority. “We are extremely excited to see the impact these women will have on their institutions as they work through the ELATE curriculum and develop their action projects,” explains Diane Magrane, Director of the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics. “The projects the Fellows conduct not only help them understand the challenges facing academic institutions and the skills a leader must possess to address these challenges, but also often result in concrete improvements at their institutions.”

The work for this incoming class begins in May with online assignments and community building activities that continue through the end of the program in April 2013. Fellows begin the first of three week-long, in-residence sessions when they meet for the first time at the ACE Conference Center in Lafayette Hill, PA, on August 2, 2012.

The 2012-2013 ELATE at Drexel Fellows 
 
Margaret Bailey, Ph.D., P.E.
The Kate Gleason School of Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology

Monica Brockmeyer, Ph.D.
Wayne State University College of Engineering

Terri Camesano, Ph.D.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Department of Engineering

Justine Cassell, Ph.D.
Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science

Eugenia Ellis, Ph.D.
Drexel University College of Engineering

Amy Fleischer, Ph.D.
Villanova University College of Engineering

Linda Franzoni, Ph.D.
Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University

Keri Hornbuckle, Ph.D.
University of Iowa College of Engineering

Jacqueline Isaacs, Ph.D.
Northeastern University College of Engineering

Karen Moxon, Ph.D.
Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems

Alyssa Panitch, Ph.D.
Purdue University College of Engineering

Saswati Sarkar, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Sciences