ABET Inc., the national accrediting agency for engineering
education, has honored the College of Engineering
and the Office of Diversity Initiatives at Embry-
Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus with one of its four national 2008 ABET President’s Awards for Diversity.
Embry-Riddle was honored for its initiatives to attract and retain a cross section of students, especially females,
to its degree programs in engineering, a field that is still predominately male, both at the university and nationwide.
Pictured from left to right: Dr. Maj Mirmirani, Dr. Joan Detore-Nakamura, and Professor Lisa Davids.
“This national honor reflects positively on our university,”
said John P. Johnson, president of Embry-
Riddle. “I am very proud of our Office of Diversity
Initiatives and College of Engineering for their successful efforts to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in the college.”
The Embry-Riddle initiatives have been remarkably successful in attracting and retaining female students to the engineering profession. Embry-Riddle enrolls and graduates more female aerospace engineering students than Georgia Tech and Texas A&M, the nation’s
second and third largest programs combined. The diversity emphasis is also paying dividends in mechanical and civil engineering, where female enrollments
and graduation rates are near 20 percent.
The initiatives are:
K-12 Outreach
- Girls Exploring Math & Science Summer Camp – Offered
for the past two years in the local community to girls 8-13 years old.
- Aerospace Program at Campbell Middle School – Involves
more than 300 sixth-grade students, of whom 70 percent are African-American and 72 percent are low income, and more than 100 volunteers from Embry-Riddle’s Society of Black Engineers, Women’s Mini-Baja program, and aerospace engineering program.
- Aerospace After-School Club at Cypress Creek Elementary
School – Involves 48 elementary school students, of whom 30 are girls, and student volunteers from Embry-Riddle’s College of Engineering.
College Transition Support
- Mentoring Programs – Include a new-student mentoring
program that pairs female engineering students with volunteer faculty members.
Focused Curriculum Enhancement
- Female Initiative: Reaching Success Together (FIRST) – A Boeing-sponsored program that includes
field trips to Kennedy Space Center, seminars
on career topics, mentoring, and tutoring.
- Women’s Mini Baja SAE Team – The program assembles
a team of female student engineers to design,
build, and test an off-road Mini Baja vehicle and then compete nationally against other university
teams.
Focused Curriculum Enhancement
- Sponsoring Female Faculty Members in Support of Ph.D. Studies -- The College of Engineering is sponsoring a female faculty member’s work toward a Ph.D. in engineering education through a forgivable
loan, release time, and tuition support.
- Highlighting Successful Female Students and Alumni – Successful female students and alumni share their experiences and return to campus as speakers.
Key people who are responsible for Embry-Riddle’s engineering diversity initiatives are: Joanne Detore-Nakamura, associate professor of humanities and social studies and director of the Office of Diversity Initiatives; Heidi Steinhauer, assistant professor of engineering; Lisa Davids, assistant professor of engineering
and director of freshman engineering; Christopher Grant, associate dean of the College of Engineering; and Darris White, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
