Catherine Pieronek, associate dean for academic affairs and director of the women’s engineering program at the University of Notre Dame, died on April 9 at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. She was 52 years old.
A native of Detroit, Pieronek was a 1984 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. She earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. She then worked as a senior systems engineer for TRW, where she worked on several projects for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Pieronek earned a law degree at the University of Notre Dame in 1995 and then became director of alumni relations for the law school and the editor of the alumni association’s quarterly magazine. She joined the staff of the College in Engineering in 2002.