DEIJ Highlights

Highlights of some of Lafayette Engineering’s history and activities aimed at promoting equity and justice include:

• As of fall 2025, half of first-year students participate in the Peer Mentor Program administered by the Hanson Center. Research demonstrates that robust peer mentoring programs enhance educational experiences and foster a greater sense of belonging for students, setting the foundation for long-term success.
• Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jenn Stroud Rossmann was named William Jeffers Dean of Engineering August 1, 2025.
• Working with the Hanson Center, all engineering departments and programs completed climate studies to better understand how students perceive and navigate their academic environments—especially in relation to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Findings were shared with faculty, who implemented strategic actions to address key concerns and strengthen the department’s culture of belonging.
• Lafayette hosted the first Girl Scout Badge Day with Girl Scouts from the Lehigh Valley and eastern Pennsylvania spending a day on campus and learning about engineering, STEM careers, coding and more. Girl Scout Badge Day is now an annual event.
• Lafayette was recognized among the 20 Best Colleges for Women in STEM in the U.S. by Washington Monthly, a publication based in the Washington, D.C. area covering public affairs. . In rankings announced August 25, 2024, Lafayette College has been named America’s fifth best college for women in chemical engineering and sixth best college for women in mechanical and civil engineering.
• Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering Dr. Kristen L. Sanford, P.E. was recognized with the American Society of Civil Engineers Region 2 Outstanding ASCE Justice, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (JEDI) Award for her commitment to DEIJ in her teaching, scholarship, and service in 2024.
• Lafayette has consistently been above the national average for undergraduate women in engineering for the last 10 years, with three of five B.S. degree programs graduating nearly 50% female-identifying students.
• Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jenn Rossmann earned the 2023 ASEE Sterling Olmsted Award, the highest award given by the Liberal Education/Engineering & Society (LEES) Division of the ASEE. Dr. Rossmann was honored with this award for the breadth of her teaching and scholarship, her two textbooks, her essay series “An engineer reads a novel” at Public Books, and her deep commitment to inclusion, equity, and justice in engineering education. In 2021 she and coauthor Charles A. Dana Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English Mary Amrstrong earned three ASEE best paper awards for their work that explored the positive impacts of women’s and gender studies coursework on underrepresented engineering students.
• Lafayette had a strong showing at the July 2023 Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM Academic & Networking Conference. The scholars presented their posters; Hanson Center Director Wendy Hill and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jenn Rossmann co-facilitated a workshop on Imposter Phenomenon; and CBL scholar Erin O’Leary ‘25 moderated a workshop on Understanding the Graduate School Application Process.
• The annual scholarship banquet of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Lehigh Valley chapter was held on Lafayette campus spring 2023. William Jeffers Director of Engineering Lauren Anderson gave the keynote address.
• Lafayette attended the United Nations 8th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly. Eight faculty/staff members and 35 students representing 10 nations attended the event. The trip was a joint effort among the Engineering Division, the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education, the Office of Sustainability, and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.
• Lafayette faculty joined Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning and Director for the Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship Tracie Addy at Penn State’s October 2022 Big Ten ++ event to discuss new DEI criteria for accrediting engineering programs. The Lafayette faculty team included Lauren Anderson ’04, William Jeffers Director of Engineering; Wendy Hill, director of the Daniel and Heidi ’91 Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education; Jenn Rossmann, professor of mechanical engineering; and Lindsay Soh, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and department head.
• Lauren Anderson ’04, James T. Marcus ’50 Scholar and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was named the William Jeffers Director of Engineering, effective July 1, 2022.
• Jenn Rossmann, Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Mary Armstrong, Charles A. Dana Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English, collaborated on a STEM studies paper that received multiple awards for excellence at the 2021 American Society for Engineering Conference (ASEE). Their paper, which explored the positive impacts of women’s and gender studies coursework on underrepresented engineering students, received three “best paper” awards: best paper in the liberal education/engineering & society (LEES) division; best paper in the professional interest council (the larger conference section to which LEES belongs); and finally, best overall conference paper.
• Lafayette Engineering’s 2021 Resnik Lecture featured Leland Melvin, engineer, educator, former NASA astronaut, and NFL wide receiver.
• Engineering student leaders and Engineering Council collaborated to add a DEIJ component to ES101, a required course taken by all first-year engineering students. Office of Intercultural Development Director Robert Young ’14 led conversations around implicit bias and microaggressions. The inaugural workshop was included as a required component by all 11 instructors in 2021, and will be added to the syllabus in future ES101 courses.
• The Engineering Division co-sponsored The Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education event: Ainissa Ramirez: Scientific Storytelling and the Alchemy of Us in September 2021.
• Lafayette Engineering co-sponsored Ruha Benjamin in 2020, associate professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, discussing race and technology, Hidden Figures week in November 2018 and the inaugural Women in STEM week in April 2019.
• The Division hosted Safe Zone training to assist faculty and staff in supporting LGBTQ+ identified community members, most recently in February 2020. The workshop was attended by one third of division faculty and staff, with an additional one third previously certified in Safe Zone training.
• The 2017 ASEE summary report “Engineering By the Numbers” reported Lafayette College among the top 20 schools in percentage of Bachelor’s degrees awarded to women.
• The 2017 ASEE summary report “Engineering By the Numbers” noted Lafayette’s engineering programs 9th among all engineering colleges and universities in percentage of women tenured/tenure-track faculty.
• Lafayette has been recognized by the ASEE for its commitment to diversity and inclusivity.
• The Engineering Division’s 2016 Resnik Lecture featured the first black woman in space, Dr. Mae Jemison.
• The Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholars Program was established in 2016 to provide summer research opportunities and mentoring for women engineering students. More than 50 women have participated in the program through summer to date.
• Lafayette was among a small group of engineering schools that initiated the national Engineering Deans Diversity Initiative through the ASEE in 2015, a program which takes a systematic approach to fostering an inclusive engineering climate and create real and lasting change. Lafayette Engineering is proud to have been an integral part of its development.