Stephanie G. Adams Named Dean of Engineering at Old Dominion
March 21, 2016
Stephanie G. Adams
Stephanie G. Adams, professor and engineering education department head at Virginia Tech, has been selected as the seventh dean of Old Dominion University's Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology.
Adams, who grew up in Hampton Roads and attended Old Dominion's child care center, will be the first female engineering dean at the University. She was selected following a nationwide search.
Adams brings a legacy of accomplishment to Old Dominion. Before being appointed a department chair at Virginia Tech in 2010, Adams served as associate dean for undergraduate studies in the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University from 2008 to 2010. For the decade before, she was a faculty member and administrator in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She also served two years as a program officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Among her many recognitions, Adams received a 2003 CAREER award from NSF to support her goal of designing, developing and validating a model for the facilitation of effective teaming in the engineering classroom. Adams also received the 2008 DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award from the American Society of Engineering Education and the Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Award from the National Society of Black Engineers.
She comes to Old Dominion University having won more than $12 million in research grants as principal investigator or co-principal investigator and authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, more than 30 conference proceedings publications, five book chapters and two edited books.
Acting Provost Chandra de Silva and incoming Provost Augustine "Austin" O. Agho said the search committee, chaired by Dean Jane Bray of the Darden College of Education, identified Adams as an excellent candidate for the position.
"President John R. Broderick strongly supported our decision," de Silva said. "He expressed his high regard for the strong and strategic vision she outlined for the Batten College of Engineering and Technology and her commitment to grow faculty and student partnerships with business and industry throughout the Commonwealth."
Adams is an honor graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she earned her BS in mechanical engineering. She received a master's degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia in 1991 and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering from Texas A&M University in 1998. She is a fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education.
Her research interests include broadening engineering participation; faculty and graduate student development; international and global education; teamwork and team effectiveness, and quality control and management.
Adams is a leader in the advancement and inclusion of all in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. She has worked with a number of colleges and universities, government agencies and non-profit organizations on topics related to graduate education, mentoring, faculty development and diversifying STEM, including the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, NASA MUST (Motivating Undergraduates in Science and Technology) Program and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.
Old Dominion University has a long track record in STEM education, graduating the second most students in the discipline of any institution in Virginia. Its engineering programs, which trace their start to Old Dominion's founding as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, have produced achievers in every engineering discipline from Rhodes Scholar Samantha Salvia to space shuttle astronaut Michael Bloomfield to chief investment officer and philanthropist Mark Strome.