Design Your Academic Life

Cory is an Assistant Professor in the new Industrial and Systems Engineering program at Colorado Christian University. His interdisciplinary background prepared him for helping develop integrated courses and curricula merging engineering knowledge, skills, and abilities; research-based instructional strategies; the entrepreneurial mindset; and a biblical perspective to engineering education. He has successfully fostered university-industry partnerships and entrepreneurial-minded learning, which extend the impact of the program beyond classroom learning and provide students with the real-world knowledge and experiences needed to excel after graduation.

Kaitlin is an Assistant Professor in the Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. She is focused on multi-disciplinary instruction in the first and second years. Her background includes chemical engineering (BS), biomedical engineering (2 years working in vaccine development), environmental engineering (MS, PhD), and mechanical engineering (5 years as an instructor in an ME department).

Mary (BSME, MBA) is a Professor of Practice at Michigan Tech University and serves as Assistant Dean for Academic Programs for the Pavlis Honors College, and also as co-director of the Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship and director of IDEAhub, an educational innovation incubator. Mary also serves as PI and director of the NSF I-Corps Site. During her 20 years at MTU, Mary has helped to develop and lead the highly distinctive undergraduate Enterprise Program and the Global Leadership program. She loves to work with students and teaches courses in leadership, human-centered design and lean start-up. She helped to co-found MicroDevice Engineering, LLC, a new start-up focused on bringing rapid diagnostic devices to market.

Elise is the founder and CEO of DfX Consulting LLC which offers engineering education and design research, planning and consulting services. She is a registered Professional Engineer and was a Founding Faculty member of the Department of Engineering at Wake Forest University. She is passionate about curriculum development, scholarship and student mentoring on transportation systems, sustainability, and engineering design. In addition to her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Dr. Barrella holds a Master of City and Regional Planning (Transportation) from Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.