“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” _______________________
― Richard P. Feynman

The goal of my professional activity is to enhance the experience of engineering students at Elizabethtown. In addition to advancing the field, I want to motivate students, provide research opportunities, demonstrate the connection of engineering to societal needs, and model an interdisciplinary learning community by collaborating with colleagues in other fields. Several modes of scholarly activity can accomplish these goals, such as those identified by Boyer: discovery, integration, application, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Embracing this reconsidered definition of scholarship, I have 1) continued my discovery scholarship in biomaterials, and 2) established a research agenda in engineering education.

major accomplishments ______________________________________

• 6 journal papers and 30 conference papers, with 2 undergraduate co-authors
• Over $750,000 of NSF funding with another $1.4 million under review
• Apprentice Educator Grant award from Women In Engineering Division of American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 (one awarded nationally)
• Advised award-winning undergraduate research that resulted in a journal publication
• Interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues in engineering, psychology, social work, sociology, and music education
• National Press on Alternative Grading approaches and innovative ethics instruction

Areas of Interest _____________________________________________

• Engineering Education

• Issues of identity and persistence for female and first-generation students 

• Creativity as an undervalued aspect of engineering curricula 

• Alternative assessment approaches, such as Standards-Based Grading 

• Biomedical Engineering

• Failure analysis and device design for biomedical applications

• Material behavior of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene for total joint replacements