2016 Elections – ARCHIVE

Dear WIED Member:

This page give the information about the excellent slate of candidates for our 2016 elections. Below is the list of 2016 candidates and their statements.

Summary of the WIED Board positions for 2016:

Program Chair Elect: Janet Callahan

Secretary: Malini Natarajarathinam

Director-at-Large: Debra Friedrichsen, Rachelle Reisberg

Assistant Web Manager: Claire McCullough


Program Chair Elect: succeeds the Program Chair. The program chair serves as the chair of the program committee, and in the absence of the Chair, s/he presides at meetings of the Division.

CANDIDATE 1: Dr. Janet Callahan is the Founding Associate Dean for the College of Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University, Idaho. She holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Callahan is a NSF Career Award recipient, a member of the University of Connecticut’s Academy of Distinguished Engineers and received the Idaho Woman Making History Award in 2009. Janet is active in ABET as a commissioner and has been a member of ASEE since 2002. In 2015-16, Dr. Callahan served the Women in Engineering Division as Awards Chair. Her current research areas include first-year student success, mathematics teaching and learning, faculty development and institutional change.

CANDIDATE 2: Write-in candidate

Secretary: keeps the minutes of Division meetings.

CANDIDATE 1: Dr. Malini Natarajarathinam is an Associate professor of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. She is also the founding faculty and advisor for Society of Women in Industrial Distribution (ID). Her teaching activities surround classes in purchasing, logistics and strategic relationships. Her research interests include coordinated decision making in stochastic supply chains, handling supply chains during times of crisis and optimizing global supply chains. She has a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University and a Ph.D. in Operations Management from The University of Alabama.

CANDIDATE 2: Write-in candidate

Director-at-Large:Those elected to this position are assigned duties by the Division Chair, usually work on standing or ad hoc committees of the WIED. This position has a 2-year term.

CANDIDATE 1: Dr. Debra Friedrichsen (formerly Gilbuena) owns a consulting company where she works with small and startup companies providing engineering and business strategy consulting. As an active member of the Women in Engineering Division, she has served as Assistant Webmaster, Webmaster, and division representative on the Diversity Committee of ASEE. This activity is one way she shows her passion for promoting women and underrepresented groups in STEM fields. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Chemical Engineering with a dissertation focused on engineering education. Her engineering education pursuits garnered her co-authorship of a recently published book to help faculty design for propagation of educational innovations. In addition, her article in the Journal of Engineering Education on the role of professional skills in engineering education and feedback on such skills was recently awarded the 2016 William Elgin Wickenden Award. Debra also has an MBA, an MS, and 5 years of industrial experience including a position in sensor development, an area in which she holds a patent.

CANDIDATE 2: Dr. Rachelle Reisberg is Assistant Dean for Engineering Enrollment and Retention as well as Director of Women in Engineering at Northeastern University. She is the advisor to the SWE student chapter. She was the Principal Investigator on the Pathways research grant titled “Self-Efficacy and Retention of Women in Undergraduate Engineering” funded by NSF’s Gender in Science and Engineering program. Rachelle earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering at Rice University. After graduating, she joined IBM where she worked in thin film head manufacturing, strategic planning, and marketing support. After IBM, she spent several years at Hanover Insurance in Worcester, MA. She was promoted to Vice President, Information/Systems after the company merged with Allmerica Financial. After doing strategic planning for Allmerica Financial, Rachelle began a high tech start-up company specializing in speech recognition software and training. She was President of this company for five years prior to joining the College of Engineering at Northeastern University.

CANDIDATE 3: Write-in candidate

Assistant Web Manager becomes Web Manager after one year as Assistant Web Manager. The Assistant Web Manager assists the Web Manager in maintaining the division’s web site,http://wied.asee.org. This includes (but is not limited to) being Editor-in-Chief of the Division’s newsletter, and posting jobs, research positions, news, and honor roll items. The Assistant Web Manager works with the Web Manager to create regular reports on website utilization which are presented to the Board. Experience with and access to Dreamweaver or another application that uses document control is required.

CANDIDATE 1: Dr. Claire McCullough received her BE, MSEE, and Ph.D. degrees Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech and the University of Tennessee, respectively, and is a registered professional engineer. She is active in I.E.E.E., Sigma Xi, and SWE. She is currently a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. Her 30 years’ experience in engineering practice and education includes industrial experience at the Tennessee Valley Authority and the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Her research interests include Image and Data Fusion, Automatic Target Recognition, Bioinformatics, and issues related to under-represented groups in STEM fields. She is a member of the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission, and is on the board of the Ethics Division of ASEE.

CANDIDATE 2: Write-in candidate


Instructions on how to vote:

You may cast your ballot here.

Voting will close on May 20th, 2016. WIED members will need to enter their new ASEE member number. If you don’t know your number, log into ASEE using your email and password and you will find your Member ID on the landing page. Click here for where to locate on page.

Thank you for your support of the WIED!