KEEN Leadership Council
The KEEN Leadership Council empowers KEEN partner institutions to shape and guide Network initiatives and activities.
The Council will:
- Provide guidance on how KEEN partner institutions can engage and lead in the Network.
- Assist with activities such as connecting new KEEN Leaders within the growing Network.
- Provide input on promoting the entrepreneurial mindset.
The Council is inclusive and reflective of the Network’s wonderful and diverse range of KEEN partner institutions, in terms of size, focus, mission, geographic location, and more.
Nomination and Voting System
All official partner candidates were sent to the primary contacts at all KEEN Partner schools for review and voting.
Virtual Suggestion Box
The KEEN Leadership Council has opened a virtual suggestion box. Have something positive to share? An idea that will help KEEN reach its mission? A question about a recent decision or announcement? We want to hear your thoughts! This is an anonymous way for you to provide feedback to the KEEN Leadership Council.
Meet the KEEN Leadership Council
Ann McKenna, Vice Dean of Strategic Advancement & Professor, Arizona State University
Ann has been part of the KEEN network since ASU joined in 2016. She has been involved in several projects and most recently is leading the Mentorship 360 project, which has the aim of creating community to develop research, frameworks, and resources to foster EM-based mentoring for all engineering faculty. Ann is excited to contribute to the council in any way that helps leverage the community to advance engineering education.
Cheryl Bodnar, Associate Professor, Rowan University
Cheryl has been a KEEN leader since 2016 when she helped to establish Rowan as a new KEEN partner. Since that time, she has served as a facilitator for the ICE workshops and been selected as a KEEN Rising Star Award Winner. Her passion lies in helping faculty see their own entrepreneurial mindset and assisting them in leveraging these traits throughout their work. She looks forward to how she will be able to continue to shape the future of the network through the inaugural KEEN Leadership Council.
Craig Downing, Department Head of Engineering Management, Associate Dean of Lifelong Learning, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Since joining KEEN in 2014, Craig has continually expanded his involvement on his campus and within the Network. After learning of Leadership Council, he was thrilled with the parallels of the Council’s aims with his professional aspirations. “Engineering is a fertile foundation for students to grow diverse and sustainable careers when applying an entrepreneurial mindset.” Craig looks forward to expanding his advocacy for EM by helping design an impactful and sustainable “next-gen” Network model that serves contemporary engineering education needs.
Eddy Rojas, Executive Vice President and Provost, University of St. Thomas
Eddy has been involved with KEEN since 2014. He has served as PI in two KEEN institutional grants and has been an active member in many other related initiatives. His interest in KEEN emerged from his research background in engineering education, most notably his work with modeling, simulation, and visualization, as applied to educational games. Eddy is looking forward to contributing to the inaugural KEEN Leadership Council as he sees this initiative as a powerful tool to ensure that the transformational impact of KEEN in engineering education continues for years to come.
Erin Jablonski, Associate Dean of Faculty, College of Engineering & Director of Pre-College Engineering Programs, Bucknell University
Erin has been involved with KEEN initiatives at Bucknell since 2011 and has participated in numerous conferences, workshops, and professional development opportunities within the Network. Erin has been a KEEN Leader for a few years and is honored to be part of the inaugural KEEN Leadership Council to contribute to and celebrate the fantastic accomplishments of colleagues from across the Network.
JD Yoder, Dean of Engineering, Ohio Northern University
John-David (J-D) has been part of KEEN since 2005 in various roles at Ohio Northern University, where he currently serves as Dean. He enjoys networking with existing and potential KEEN partners. He has been part of a range of entrepreneurial ventures. His background is in vision-guided robotics and intelligent vehicles. His focus and reason for being on the KEEN Leadership Council is in improving undergraduate engineering education.
Jessica Fick, Associate Professor and Senior Design Coordinator, University of Wisconsin - Platteville
Jessica first attended KNC in 2018 and was immediately hooked on EM and its potential to transform programs and their graduates. Jessica led the efforts at UW-Platteville to become a KEEN partner in 2020. UW-Platteville continues to spread awareness and knowledge of EM through monthly Teaching with Impact seminars and EML HelpLine discussions and is developing new champions of EM through the KEEN @ P Leadership Academy. Jessica is looking forward to being more involved in the network and its future direction through the KLC.
Joe Le Doux, Professor and Executive Director for Learning and Training, Georgia Institute of Technology
Joe is passionate about the network’s mission and optimistic about its potential for having a powerful impact on all of engineering education. He is currently leading a department-wide project to infuse story-driven learning within multiple schools of engineering at Georgia Tech to help students’ see themselves as entrepreneurial engineers who relentlessly seek to create value for others.
Ken Bloemer, Director, Visioneering Center, School of Engineering, University of Dayton
Dr. Bloemer attended his first KEEN Conference as an industry guest of the University of Dayton in 2010 and he joined UD shortly afterwards. With 30 years of prior industry experience, Ken witnessed firsthand the value created by entrepreneurially minded engineers. He is passionate about the EM movement and looks forward to serving on the KEEN Leadership Council.
Kurt Paterson, Director and Professor, The Polytechnic School, ASU
Kurt currently serves the U.S. Department of State as Senior Sustainability Advisor, following seven boundary-pushing years as Head of Engineering at James Madison University. He enjoys reimagining higher education with others and then making it happen. Kurt is looking forward to elevating expectations for engineering education excellence through the KEEN Leadership Council.
Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, Assistant Provost for Program Assessment & Effectiveness, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of New Haven
Maria-Isabel has ten years of experience as a KEEN Leader. Over the past six years, she has been at the forefront of training and supporting faculty from across the network on how they too can embed EM into their courses. She has worked with hundreds of faculty as they've developed modules and EU Cards. Maria-Isabel is excited to be part of the inaugural KEEN Leadership Council to set the stage for the network’s long-term sustainability.
Marie Dahleh, Associate Dean for Strategic Innovation, Tulane University
Marie participated in her first KEEN workshop in the fall of 2019 just months after joining Tulane University. This was quickly followed by a national meeting in Dallas. Most recently she participated in the year long story telling workshop for KEEN leaders. Witnessing the excitement from colleagues after attending KEEN events, motivated Marie to serve on the leadership council to help shape the future of KEEN.
