Donna Riley, Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing at The University of New Mexico, has been elected as the first vice president of scholarship for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
The position became official at the 2023 ASEE Annual Conference and Expo, held recently in Baltimore.
The two-year board position will oversee ASEE’s Scholarly Publications Committee and serves as the point of contact for all scholarly products affiliated with ASEE, such as journals, conference proceedings and new media products like podcasts.
Riley said the ASEE board voted last year, and the membership ratified changes to the organization’s constitution to create a new vice president role focused on scholarly activities.
“The change was meant to create a strategic focus on this aspect of ASEE’s activities, and my charge will be to lead ASEE’s growth in engineering education scholarship,” she said. “The creation of this position recognizes the growing importance of engineering education research.”
Riley began as dean of the UNM School of Engineering on April 1. Before coming to UNM, she was Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Education, which was the world’s first such academic unit, launched in 2004. There, she oversaw the first-year engineering program, two bachelor’s-level programs, a graduate program and a university research center.
She is a longtime member and fellow of ASEE. Her research focuses on engineering education, especially the integration of ethics, communication, social analysis, lifelong learning and how those skillsets help in the formation of engineering professionals. In 2005, she received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for “Liberative Pedagogies in Engineering Education.” In 2012, she received the Sterling Olmsted Award from ASEE and was 2010 Educator of the Year award from Out to Innovate.