Program Mentors are crucial to the success of the MMP Mentee experience. Mentors provide their Mentees with personalized career coaching, professional development modules, and a peer-to-peer Community of Practice. Cohort II Mentors include a range of successful faculty members from previous cohorts as well as those new to the program. ASEE staff will collaborate with the Advisory Committee to optimize matchings between mentors and mentees.

Catherine K. Armwood-Gordon, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Tennessee State University. She received her PhD in Architectural Engineering from University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2014) and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering, Tennessee State University (2007). Her technical expertise is structural engineering, with research interest in the study of the behavior of structural materials and structural performance of existing structures and structures subjected to natural disasters. She also conducts research in faculty development and engineering education. She is the Director of Student Services and Outreach for the College of Engineering. She holds the positions of TSU Regional Director for the Tennessee Science Olympiad, TSU National Summer Transportation Institute Director, Board Member of the Nashville Region Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) Organization, Treasurer of the Music City Professionals of the National Society of Black Engineers, and serves on the Metro Public Schools STEM Advisory Board and Tennessee Department of Education STEM Advisory Council.

Sreyoshi Bhaduri, Ph.D., researches at the intersection of people, the future of work, and emerging technology. Sreyoshi leverages AI for mixed-methods research related to people at work, ensuring that organizations intentionally center the human experience. Sreyoshi currently works at Amazon. She has previously led Global People Research at McGraw Hill – the learning sciences company. At and outside of work, Sreyoshi is a speaker passionate about demystifying AI and improving belonging in Engineering. She serves on the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and was elected a Senator at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She has been honored as an Emerging Leader in Tech (ELiTE) and an Engaged Advocate by the Society of Women Engineers, and has been inducted to the Yale Bouchet Honor Society. In a gist, Sreyoshi is a maker of lists and itineraries, who loves responsible technology, and dabbles in writing. Learn more about her impact at – www.ThatStatsGirl.com

Pamela Bhatti, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Chair for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech. Her research is dedicated to overcoming sensory loss in human hearing through focused neural stimulation, and novel implantable sensors.  Dr. Bhatti also conducts research in cardiac imaging to assess and monitor cardiovascular disease. She received her B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley (1989), her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington (1993), and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2006). In 2013, she earned an M.S. in Clinical Research from Emory University, and co-founded a startup company (Camerad Technologies) based on her research in detecting wrong-patient errors in radiology. Dr. Bhatti is the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, Editor-in-Chief; and, in 2017, received the Georgia Tech Class of 1934 Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award.

Krystel Castillo, Ph.D., is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute (TSERI) at University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Dr. Castillo-Villar’s area of expertise is mathematical programming and optimization techniques for analyzing large-scale, complex systems under uncertainty. Castillo-Villar is conducting research on modeling and design of green energy (bioenergy) systems; modeling the impact of increased adoption of Electric Vehicles and Natural Gas Vehicles on the distribution network and operational costs for fleet owners; and big data analytics for healthcare and defense applications. As the first female Hispanic faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Castillo-Villar has recruited underrepresented students in STEM fields for her research group including female engineers, Hispanics, and other minorities. In addition to her professor position, she is also the co-director of the Manufacturing Systems and Automation Laboratory; core faculty of the Open Cloud Institute; core faculty of the Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems; and core faculty of the Center for Simulation, Visualization, and Real-Time Prediction. 

Amy Chan-Hilton, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) and a Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern Indiana (USI). Her current work focuses on faculty development and advancement, a systems approach to STEM education, and facilitating educational transformation to support student success. She leads an NSF-supported project to explore faculty-driven learning analytics tools to provide actionable insights to instructors as they support student success in STEM foundational courses. Prior to joining USI, Amy served as an NSF Program Officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education and Division of Engineering Education and Centers, where she was continuously inspired by the innovative endeavors by dedicated researchers and practitioners to advance and impact STEM education and research. Previously, Amy was a member of the faculty and served as Associate Chair in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University joint College of Engineering. She earned Civil and Environmental Engineering degrees from the University of Virginia and MIT.

Kelly J. Cross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering  at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is a data-informed, transformational mission-focused culturally responsive practitioner, researcher, and educational leader. She is a member ASEE’s Leadership Virtual Community of Practice (LVCP) and has conducted online and in-person workshops on managing personal bias in STEM, and mitigating racialized power and privilege.  Her research includes diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM; intersectionality; teamwork and communication skills; assessment; and identity construction.  Dr. Cross received a NSF CAREER award to train STEM Faculty on implementing DEI concepts; awarded the national ITM Faculty Mentor of the Year; was named one of “1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America” by Cell Mentor; has delivered multiple distinguished invited lectures; and was lead Co-Editor of the book Queering Stem Culture in US Higher Education (2022). Dr. Cross’ complimentary professional activities promote inclusive excellence through collaboration.

Isabel Escobar, Ph.D., is the Chellgren Chair Endow Professor at the University of Kentucky. She teaches in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Escobar holds a Ph.D degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, where she was an EPA STAR Fellow. Escobar joined the University of Kentucky in August of 2015, after spending fifteen years at The University of Toledo. She is Associate Editor of Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy Journal. Isabel Escobar and her research group have published nearly 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals/book chapters and have made over 200 presentations at national/international conferences. In May of 2023, the North American Membrane Society made her a Fellow of the Society both for her commitment to the Society as well as for her contributions to membrane science and technology. Escobar is the Chair of the Governing Board of the Association for Women In Science (AWIS).

Oceana P. Francis, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Sea Grant Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM). Her research focuses on building resilient urban communities and infrastructure systems from hydrodynamic hazards. She is a licensed civil engineer in both Alaska and Hawaii. Some of her professional service currently includes serving as editor for American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, faculty advisor for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter, and founder and president of the Society of Native Hawaiian Engineers (SNHE). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a former scholar with the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership.

Sonia Garcia, Ph.D., is currently the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering. Dr. Garcia joined the University of Georgia College of Engineering in January 2022 as the College’s first Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this new position, she is responsible for advancing mentoring and support programs, with an emphasis on programs that support underrepresented students. Dr. Garcia has held several positions at Texas A&M University, including Senior Director of Access and Inclusion at the College of Engineering, Assistant Director at May Business School, and finally, Director of Recruitment for the College of Geosciences. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in Political Science, a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island in College Student Personnel, and a doctoral degree from Michigan State University in Higher Educational and Administration with cognates in Sociology and Labor Industrial Relations.

Karlene A. Hoo, Ph.D., is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Gonzaga University. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Hoo worked as a chemical engineer in private industry, primarily with Exxon-Mobil and DuPont. After launching her academic career at the University of South Carolina, where she won a prestigious National Sciences Foundation CAREER award, Dr. Hoo joined Texas Tech University. At Texas Tech, she served in multiple administrative positions, including co-director of an industrial consortium of Texas industries and businesses, Associate Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Associate Dean of Research in the College of Engineering, and Associate Vice President for Research. For three years, she also served as a Program Director in the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.

Racheida S. Lewis, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI) and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She has been recognized as a Gates Millennium Scholar, GEM Associate Fellow, New Horizon Scholar, and a 2019 inductee into the Bouchet Honor Society. She completed her doctoral work at Virginia Tech where she focused on the impact matriculation structures have on self-efficacy development in electrical and computer engineering students. As well, she received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia respectively. Dr. Lewis believes in creating a diverse engineering field and strives to do so through connecting with teaching, and mentoring future engineers.

Jeremi London, Ph.D., is the Assistant Provost of Academic Opportunity and Belonging in the Office of Undergraduate Education and an Associate Professor of the Practice in Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. London joined Vanderbilt from Virginia Tech, where she was associate professor of engineering education. She brings a strong commitment to providing academic opportunities to underrepresented groups, extensive experience in mentoring and advising, and a history of impactful work focused on student success. She and her VT collaborators received more than $11.5 million in external funding to develop and support initiatives that expand academic opportunities for diverse groups of students.

Rajani Muraleedharan, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Saginaw Valley State University. Her research focuses on multimodal emotion detection using machine learning for behavioral analysis and security optimization strategies for sensor networks through bio-inspired algorithms. Dr. Muraleedharan’s impactful work has garnered significant media attention from outlets such as Science Daily and Huffington Post, and she has published two book chapters, two journal articles, and 28 peer-reviewed articles, earning two Best Paper Awards. Recognized for her outstanding teaching, she received accolades such as the Outstanding Teaching Assistant award and a Certificate in University Teaching in 2009, underscoring her commitment to education and innovation in her field.

Pamela Holland Obiomon, Ph.D., is the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering Dean at Prairie View A&M University. Dr. Obiomon has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Microelectronic engineering since 2003. In 2013, Obiomon took on the role of department head serving one of the largest programs in the college. Under her guidance, the department was awarded $20 million dollars in grants from the chancellor’s research initiative, which helped aid in the creation of the Computational Biology and Bioengineering Research Center, Cyber Security research center, the Center for Advancing Innovation is Smart Microgrid and Center of Excellence in Research and Education for Big Military Data Intelligence. She earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, an M.S. in Engineering from Prairie View A&M University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Andrea M. Ogilvie, Ph.D., P.E., serves as Assistant Dean for Student Success and Associate Professor of Instruction in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.  Dr. Ogilvie is an engineering education researcher and practitioner who draws on decades of experience in engineering and higher education.  Her research interests center on higher education policy issues, workforce development, and broadening participation in STEM.  Dr. Ogilvie holds multiple degrees in engineering and public affairs from The University of Texas at Austin (BS Civil Engineering, Master of Public Affairs) and Virginia Tech (MS Industrial and Systems Engineering, PhD Engineering Education).

Gisella Lamas Samanamud, Ph.D., is a Brazilian/Peruvian environmental engineer. She works as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Kentucky – Paducah. She is a visiting scholar at the graduate school of UNIFEI – Brazil. Her technical research experience focuses on water and wastewater treatment, statistical methods and biofilms applied to engineering. She also studies the application of SoTL to the chemical engineering curriculum. She is passionate about DEIB, outreach opportunities and mentoring. She has been awarded the 2022 Engaged advocate award. She has completed the Global Diplomacy Initiative course from UNITAR and she is a STEM PEER academy fellow 2023.

Dr. Sheryl Sorby, Ph.D., is a Professor of Engineering Education at the University of Cincinnati. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Dublin Institute of Technology conducting research in engineering education and is a professor emerita of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Tech. She is the former Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of Engineering at Michigan Tech and served at the National Science Foundation as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education for nearly three years. Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean, Dr. Sorby served as chair of the Engineering Fundamentals Department. She received a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Engineering Mechanics, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, all from Michigan Tech.

Bevlee A. Watford, Ph.D., is a Professor of Engineering Education, Associate Dean for Equity and Engagement, and the Founding Executive Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) for the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. She has secured more than $17 million dollars in funding and support for CEED and other undergraduate initiatives. Her research activities have focused on the recruitment and retention of students in engineering, with a particular emphasis on under-represented students. CEED has implemented nationally recognized programs that have enhanced the success of all students. These include freshmen peer mentoring, a summer bridge for incoming freshman and residential living-learning communities that house nearly 600 freshman engineering students. In 2008, Dr. Watford received the WEPAN Founders Award in recognition of her service to WEPAN and her efforts to increase the participation of women in the engineering profession.  In 2023, she was nominated by President Biden to serve on the National Science Board. An active member of ASEE since 1986, Bevlee A. Watford has served the organization in several capacities. She chaired the Diversity Task Force that resulted in the creation of the ASEE Diversity Strategic Plan as well as the formation of the ASEE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. She received her BS in Mining Engineering, and her MS and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Tanya Wickliff, Ph.D., is a Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Wickliff has over 20 years of experience in consulting, supply chain optimization, project management and manufacturing, and is also known for mentoring her students and in organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Texas A&M University. Additionally, she earned her M.S. in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her academic journey began with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston.

Priyantha Wijesinghe, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Curricular Enrichment at the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) at the University of Vermont (UVM). She is a structural engineer and architect by education and an engineering education and assessment expert. Dr. Wijesinghe has been teaching sophomore to graduate-level civil and structural engineering courses since 2011 at UVM. She is also an active member of the Contemplative Practices Learning Community of the University’s Center for Teaching and Learning. As a female faculty of color, Dr. Wijesinghe is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in CEMS and beyond. She also believes in the power of a growth mindset.