Jenna Carpenter, founding dean of the School of Engineering at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, will be awarded the 2022 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education from the National Academy of Engineering. She and her partners at the Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) are being recognized “for creating an innovative education program that prepares students to become future engineering leaders who will address the NAE Grand Challenges of Engineering” according to the academy. The $500,000 award recognizes new methods and concepts in education aimed at developing effective engineering leaders.
Offered at engineering schools worldwide, the GCSP provides a combined curricular and extracurricular approach to prepare undergraduate students to tackle objectives that could dramatically improve quality of life around the world. Since its launch in 2009, the GCSP has spread to more than 90 engineering schools across the country, as well as several prominent international programs.
“The Grand Challenge Scholars Program not only helps provide students with 21st-century skill sets but also motivates them to help solve the grand challenges of engineering facing our world today,” Dean Carpenter said. “I am very grateful to the National Academy and to the Bernard M. Gordon Prize Selection Committee for recognizing our efforts to establish and advance the GCSP.”
Prior to coming to Campbell University in 2015, Dr. Carpenter was the Wayne and Juanita Spinks Endowed Professor, associate dean for undergraduate studies, and director of the Office for Women in Science and Engineering at Louisiana Tech University’s College of Engineering and Science. She is currently president-elect of the American Society for Engineering Education.
A native of Corsicana, Texas, Dr. Carpenter earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Louisiana Tech and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Louisiana State University.