Women Engineering Deans in 2024

The Engineering Deans Council, or EDC, of the American Society for Engineering Education, or ASEE, represents 90% of engineering deans in the United States. Each of its approximately 360 member schools has one representative, whether a dean, director, or department head, depending on the size of the institution. Seventy-five of these leaders are women — a decrease from a high of 84 in 2021, but a marked improvement over 2002, when there were only about a dozen.

Sharon Walker, Ph.D., dean of Drexel University College of Engineering and distinguished professor of civil, architectural, and environmental engineering, was elected vice chair of EDC in 2022 and has served as its chair since June 2024. She is currently on sabbatical from Drexel but will remain active with ASEE until
her term ends in 2026.

Among Dr. Walker’s goals as chair, two stand out. First is addressing “the demographic cliff” facing higher education. “Basically, the birth rate has declined since the 2008 recession, and we’ve seen a new low of young people graduating from high school and being college ready,” she says. “Schools are competing for fewer and fewer students.”

Dr. Walker notes that this creates not only a short-term financial challenge for higher education, but also a bigger national crisis in the making. “In four or five years, we won’t have enough graduates to meet industry hiring needs,” Dr. Walker says. “We’ve become such a technologically dependent nation and culture that if we don’t have the talent to continue to innovate or even just maintain, it’s a workforce crisis.”

Engineering deans cannot address this alone and ASEE is developing many initiatives in partnership with nonprofits such as Engineering for US All, or e4USA (which was created through the efforts of an engineering dean), and other groups that work with precollege programs. 

“Traditionally the EDC didn’t engage in that [precollege] space, but as chair, I’m working hard to make sure deans are involved,” Dr. Walker says, adding that ASEE also has a committee dedicated to working with industry partners. 

“We’ve become such a technologically dependent nation and culture that if we don’t have the talent to continue to innovate or even just maintain, it’s a workforce crisis.”  

 — Sharon Walker, Ph.D.

Another priority for Dr. Walker is supporting the well-being of engineering deans and their colleagues. “Higher education has gone through so much change since COVID-19 and now with social and political unrest,” she says. “There’s just so much happening on campuses. Being a dean is a deeply satisfying job, but you’re pulled in so many different directions. We’re trying to help people onboard, even doing a study on how deans manage their time. We provide programming and mentoring for new deans and create communities to help them deal with issues in their states and on their campuses.” 

Dr. Walker believes women deans can play an important role in increasing women’s representation in engineering. “When you see it, you can be it,” she says. “Even students that don’t identify as women but have been traditionally marginalized, when they see a woman dean, they see diversity right there. Showing leadership starting to evolve has been huge for our collective goal of broadening engagement and representation in our classrooms. At times, my most powerful tool is just walking into the room and being me. It’s not just women who make those changes, but when we speak up, we can amplify voices and individual experiences.

“EDC is an incredibly collaborative group,” she continues. “We’re collectively very aware of the talent crisis facing our country. And if you don’t engage half of the population that identifies as women or people that historically have been underserved, you’re never going to have enough engineers to do what our country is going to fundamentally depend upon.”

Still, Dr. Walker remains optimistic, even excited about the future. “It’s an interesting moment where all the deans are coming together,” she says. “Some of our best advocates, like older white men, historically may not have been advocates. But I’m really seeing people step up. It gives me hope we can tackle the challenges we face. The reality is that to develop a tech workforce, we need to make education accessible and affordable and make our engineering classrooms welcoming for all.” 

In this feature, we present the women engineering deans in the United States, compiled by the EDC, in a list that is as up to date as possible through academic year 2024. We also profile three women engineering deans from across the country who are making a positive difference in the lives of students, faculty, staff, and their communities. 

Culture change

Tejal Desai, Ph.D., Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University, came to her role in 2022, after a distinguished career as a biomedical engineer and a professor and researcher in nanotechnology for tissue engineering and drug delivery. Throughout her academic career and research, she has been dedicated to bringing communities together and enhancing the university environment for both students and faculty. 

“Whatever I can do to remove roadblocks and allow others to succeed, that’s my goal.”  

 — Tejal Desai, Ph.D.

“While I didn’t necessarily intend to become dean, the opportunity to build and create an inclusive, vibrant engineering environment, particularly at an institution that is my alma mater, was an exciting opportunity,” she says. “I wanted to make an impact at a place that has been so transformative for me.” 

Having experienced Brown engineering as a student gives Dr. Desai unique insight into opportunities for improvements. “I felt like it was an environment where we were trying to weed students out as opposed to really working to welcome and embrace them,” she says. “I want to make sure students understand that they’re capable and are here because we believe they can succeed.” 

Another area of focus for Dr. Desai is showcasing the power and impact of engineering in society. “I often thought that engineers sort of sat on one side developing things, with all these societal problems on the other side,” she says. “Engineers play a central role in both understanding and addressing the most challenging problems of today, so it makes sense to incorporate social context into the pedagogy. It was lab experiences that helped me realize that I could help people and that motivated me throughout my entire engineering journey. It’s important for us to think about how we’re going to be developing approaches and facilitate research that is going to impact the world.”

As dean, Dr. Desai’s leadership style is collaborative. “I thrive on making experiences and connections, bringing communities together to make win-win opportunities, and empowering the community to achieve full potential,” she says. “Whatever I can do to remove roadblocks and allow others to succeed, that’s my goal.” 

Dr. Desai points to some key accomplishments during her first two years as dean. “We redesigned our first-year curriculum to deliver important concepts in both enhancing the experiential component as well as really creating a more inclusive environment,” she says. “We’ve created a new undergraduate concentration in design engineering, we’ve launched collaborative research efforts in the areas of sustainable energy and health technologies, and we’re also embarking on exciting building projects to create new lab and educational spaces.”

While Dr. Desai has stepped away from teaching, her research lab remains important to her. “We’re really growing the research enterprise at Brown,” she says. “I can see opportunities for collaboration, but also connections with industry and national funding agencies that can be brought into our school. It’s a great way for me to stay connected to students at all levels — undergrads, graduate students, and postdocs.”

Dr. Desai discovered that being a dean was quite different from her previous roles as researcher, professor, and biomedical engineer. “It’s an interesting position because you have constituencies above and below,” she says. “I serve the faculty, students, and staff — and I am trying to really respond to their needs — but I also serve the president and the provost. Often those two roles are not completely aligned, and I’m working to integrate them.”

She also discovered the larger role that deans play as an ambassador for the institution. “It’s not just about what’s good for your unit, but for the entire university. I also spend a lot of time building connections with other deans and their programs to make sure we are working collaboratively and strategically,” she says. 

Dr. Desai is also taking a more expansive view of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, efforts. “We want everyone in engineering to thrive,” she says. “In some ways we’ve been doubling down on how to do this with more community engagement and better advising. We’ve created a new summer program, which is open to all students but allows those who need additional preparation to be successful to benefit. If you don’t have the quantitative background needed, we want to help you get there, and it doesn’t matter who that student is. It’s about creating the right environment in order for everyone to succeed.”

Women Engineering Deans (or equivalent) in the United States as of February 2025:

Source: Engineering Deans Council of the American Society for Engineering Education, 2024

Curiosity and collaboration

Staying open to new opportunities and maintaining curiosity remains a cornerstone for Ann McKenna, Ph.D., since her years as an engineering student. She is now in her second year as dean of The University of Iowa College of Engineering. “It’s also important to keep challenging yourself,” she says. “Picking opportunities that may be a little bit outside of your comfort zone is where you learn a lot and where you make new connections. One of the things that led me to being a dean was to take those opportunities for leadership. By the time the chance arrived, I was ready.” 

“About 25% of our students are first-generation college students, and we’re providing resources to enable their success along with those of different genders and ethnicities. It’s a new framework that focuses on positive outcomes for all.”  

 — Ann McKenna, Ph.D.

Dr. McKenna describes herself as a collaborative leader. “As we set a strategy or a direction, we need to do that as a team,” she says. “It begins with exploring what we want to collectively accomplish together. I’m part of that, but it’s everyone contributing in the way that makes sense for them to accomplish the goal.”

Over the years, Dr. McKenna has become more mindful that organizations are made of people. “The more they feel healthy, supported, and valued, the more they’ll have energy and the motivation to work hard and do well,” she says. “So I focus on making sure people are taking care of themselves. And I like being bold. Following that curiosity to think of new things that we might do as an organization has been effective for me. 

“I’m proud and immensely grateful to be in this position,” she continues. “Sometimes it’s the small wins and sometimes the big, whether it’s launching a new degree program or winning a large research proposal. Sometimes, it doesn’t work, and we’re not always right, and have to admit that. Curiosity helps you stay open to ideas and opinions that may be different. Those are the things that push you to do something new.”

Dr. McKenna’s research area is engineering education. “I’ve done a lot of research around design thinking, developing design experiences, and understanding what it takes to be successful from a teaching and learning perspective,” she says, “and then developing programs that advance faculty and mentorship. It’s unusual to have that area of scholarship in an engineering field, but engineers in general can be quite a bit more evolved in their thinking than we give them credit for.”

When Dr. McKenna transitioned from vice dean at Arizona State University to dean at University of Iowa, she found a challenge in taking over at a new school. “It took intensive relationship building because there’s no social capital when you come into a new environment,” she says. “You have to build a foundation with people that are new to you, and you to them.” 

Like so many women engineers, she is no stranger to being one of few women in a room. “As a student back in the day, one of my first courses was mechanical drafting. There were maybe three women in the class and the professor put a cross-sectional view of a spark plug on the overhead and asked each woman, ‘What is this?’ I doubt that anyone, male or female, could identify it. But he was basically saying ‘prove to me that you belong in this class.’ When you’re young you don’t really know that’s happening, but having lived a little bit, I try to prevent other individuals from experiencing something like that.”

As is typical of many deans, Dr. McKenna has suspended her teaching to focus on her role. “I really like interacting with students, but right now I’ve got so many fantastic faculty and researchers, and I’m trying to use my role to position them to go after large initiatives.” 

When the state of Iowa asked the university to review its DEI programming, Dr. McKenna and her team spent a year conducting an intensive review. “Now we talk about diversity very broadly,” she says. “Iowa is a rural state, so we want to provide access to rural communities. About 25% of our students are first-generation college students, and we’re providing resources to enable their success along with those of different genders and ethnicities. It’s a new framework that focuses on positive outcomes for all.”

Forging forward

Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Ph.D., is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. In part, Dr. Park credits her mentor, Jennifer Curtis, Ph.D., former dean of engineering at University of California, Davis, for her decision to become a dean. 

“I had to recruit not only engineers, chemists, and material scientists, but also policy researchers, business school researchers, and social scientists. Doing that naturally led to collaborative leadership.”  

 — Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Ph.D. 

“My career and research were going well, so I never thought about going into leadership,” she says. “I don’t think I am detail-oriented or administrative. I like the big picture, bringing people together.” 

But hearing her mentor describe how deans empower others planted a seed for Dr. Park that sprouted years later during the COVID-19 pandemic. While on the faculty of Columbia University, she says, “I had to step in for my department chair on two days’ notice.  I had been the only female faculty in my department for 15 years, and now I had an opportunity to transform the culture of the department. Under my leadership, we were able to hire the second female faculty member and first Black faculty member in my department as well as other amazing people. With strong support from my colleagues, I had freedom to create my own kind of leadership. So, I continued my research and it worked so well that they kept asking me to lead the department.” 

At the same time, other schools sought to recruit Dr. Park, who was feeling a need to pursue work with a more public mission. “During the pandemic, New York City was sustained by people with fewer means,” she explains. “By the time we all went back to normal, the educational experience of the people who kept the city going and their kids had been impacted. And I felt that for generations we would have big societal issues because of this. So, when UCLA asked, ‘Would you consider leading the engineering school of the number one public university in the country?’ I had a long discussion with my husband who said, ‘Well, why don’t you at least go take a look?’”

Dr. Park discovered that not only could she continue her research, but she could also serve a public mission directly impacting people’s lives. “I realized I didn’t have to be a traditional dean, that I could chart my own course,” she says.

A year and a half later, Dr. Park is up and running. “I want to create an empowered community, and with everyone’s support and collaboration, I’ve made an exciting start,” she says. “UCLA Samueli Engineering has huge visibility but it was relatively small with only 194 faculty members when I started in 2023. At the same time, there are so many students with a perfect GPA that can’t get in.” The engineering school’s admission rate is about 5%. 

Now, she says, she is seeing the growth she hoped for. “We are hiring 34 faculty members over two years; the biggest growth in the school’s history.”

One of the technological areas Dr. Park wants to expand is AI and machine learning linked to areas where UCLA excels. “For example, we have been very strong in aerospace and space engineering, semiconductors and microelectronics, health and wellness, mobility, and sustainability,” she says. “There’s a lot of synergy between schools on campus that spurs strategic planning. This will lead to more spots for students.”

An active member of the Society of Women Engineers during her college years, Dr. Park is excited to support SWE@UCLA’s work empowering women engineering students. “In particular, I would like to enhance their connection with local industries by providing more real-world experience and mentorship.”

Dr. Park sees diversity as a core value at UCLA. “Whenever we look for new faculty, we care deeply about each person regardless of their ethnicity or background,” she says. “Hiring 50% more people who look like me is not diversity. It’s more about mindset, past experience, and working together because diversity issues affect everyone.” 

Fundraising is also a big part of Dr. Park’s job. “Engineering deans need to understand the latest technology, so staying active in research helps us talk with donors and companies about making a real impact,” she says. 

Collaboration with other departments is also key, she says. “By midcareer, the questions I was asking were becoming too big to solve alone. I had to recruit not only engineers, chemists, and material scientists, but also policy researchers, business school researchers, and social scientists. Doing that naturally led to collaborative leadership.”

Currently her research focuses on decarbonizing society. “We’re close to the Port of Los Angeles, a great test bed for new technologies,” she says. “We’re looking at how to decarbonize marine transportation fuel, convert seaweed into biohydrogen, and capture carbon out of the ocean to produce chemicals using renewable energy. These are new questions I’m very passionate about.” 

To honor her mentors, Dr. Park has become one herself. “I took a somewhat unconventional path,” she says. “My mentors always gave me a lot of freedom and I try to give similar opportunities to junior and female faculty, Ph.D. students, and undergrads.”