Founding Director
Kacey Beddoes, Assistant Dean for Systemic Equity and Engagement, has been working in engineering education research since 2008. Her work has focused on gender in engineering, interdisciplinary teamwork, mental health, and the history and sociology of engineering education research. She has received 6 NSF grants for engineering education research, including a CAREER award, and her work has won awards from the European Society for Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education, Australasian Association for Engineering Education, European Journal of Engineering Education, Journal of Engineering Education, and Journal of Civil Engineering Education. She holds a graduate certificate in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech, along with a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, and serves as Deputy Editor for the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education. Her full CV can be found here.
Founding Faculty
Dr. Haluk Beyenal
Sola Adesope
Xiopeng Bi
Dr. Hongtao Dang, Assistant Professor of Construction Management, has a unique engineering education research focus and leads the BETA Research Lab. His work focuses on civil engineering education, construction workforce development, faculty professional development, and community-engaged, service-based, experiential learning. He participated in a Trinect program as an engineering fellow to educate 3rd-grade students on civil engineering one day a week for one academic year. He served as a faculty fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for two years and developed three training programs. He was the principal investigator for Washington’s High-Demand Advanced Civil Engineering Workforce Development at WSU. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a specialization in construction engineering and management. He is a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Construction Education and Research.
Dr. Prashanta Dutta is a tenured full Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of Washington State University (WSU) and the Director of the NSF-sponsored NRT-LEAD Program. Previously, he led the WSU MME GAANN Fellow Program in the national priority area of Advanced Manufacturing. He joined the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of WSU in 2001 as a tenure track Assistant Professor and was promoted to the rank of Associate and Full Professor in 2007 and 2013, respectively. In addition to cutting-edge technical research in electrochemical, thermal and biological systems, he has contributed significantly to educational research, pedagogy design, and the dissemination of hands-on learning modules. He mentored the research work of 18 Ph.D. students and served as the chair for more than 40 MS students.
Jospeh Iannelli
Dave Kim
Dr. Colin Lehman-Chong is an Assistant Professor in the Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering where he teaches the chemical engineering capstone course sequence. His engineering education research interests include teamwork dynamics, transfer student success, and the application of desktop learning modules to capstone courses. He was awarded a WSU Smith Teaching and Learning Grant to implement inquiry-based learning in his chemical process safety course in 2024.
Dave Thiessen
Bernie Vanwie
Affiliated Faculty
Antonio Carraro
Dr. Dan Cronan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Design and Construction. His work has focused on research, practice, and teaching in multiple locations and scales including projects in China, Turkey, the U.S. Pacific Northwest, New York State and the Gulf Coast. His current efforts are focused on developing research and pedagogical approaches on various topics germane to Food and the Built Environment such as, a) Food, Energy and Water Systems (FEWS) analysis, b) landscape scenario planning and Geodesign through applications of GIS, c) digital twin development, and d) design and planning of agricultural and urban best management practices. Dan has also contributed to research efforts with a number of agencies and foundations including Americorps, Metlife Foundation, National Park Service (NPS), and UNESCO. His work and course instruction are comprised of an Alternative Futures Analysis using a scenario modeling framework through geospatial narratives and tools: Web-based geospatial applications, digital twins, and scenario & climate atlases. The scenario-based land use projections are intended to provide guidance for community planning and a framework for future development in socio-ecological systems, specifically food systems within the urban and rural context. With the School of Design and Construction at WSU, Dan intends to continue to apply similar and novel concepts of scenario planning for food and the built environment for Northwest communities and regional-scale networks.
Dr. Shelley Pressley is the Associate Dean for Student Success for the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Dr. Olivia Reynolds is a scholarly assistant professor in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and works closely with the VCEA Student Success team. She earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Washington State University in 2022 with research focused on developing and evaluating the effectiveness of low-cost, hands-on, visual learning tools demonstrating heat transfer and fluid mechanics principles. She has published papers in Chemical Engineering Education and the International Journal of Engineering Education and is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education. She is a WSU LIFT Faculty Fellow, a two-time recent recipient of Smith Teaching and Learning grants, and is involved in VCEA committee efforts to improve student success and increase evidence-based teaching practices. Reynolds currently teaches VCEA’s multidisciplinary Introduction to Engineering course and manages the first-year peer mentorship program. Reynolds conducts research on first-year student engagement, sense of belonging, and retention and is interested in furthering the understanding of demographic, academic, and non-academic factors influencing students’ persistence in engineering programs.
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