Climb every mountain, cross every stream, follow every rainbow, until you find your dream.

1. Climb every mountain, cross every stream, follow every rainbow, until you find your dream. Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best. To every problem – there is a solution. There is always one more thing you can do to influence the outcome of a situation.

2. “The First Lady of Engineering” • The first Woman in the National Academy of Engineering • Professor at: • Purdue University • Newark College of Engineering • University of Wisconsin • Advisor to Presidents: • Hoover, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy & Johnson • Portrait hangs in The National Portrait Gallery

4. How to Succeed as aFemale Engineer in Academia: Lessons Learned

5. ONE SIZE FITS ALL

6. “In the past, I have attended engineering conferences with sessions on work/life issues, only to be disappointed that they delved into the experience of male professors with stay-at-home wives. Although the challenges of these male counterparts are real, they are vastly different than the ones I face as a female professor…”

7. A Comparison of Overall Job SatisfactionBetween Engineer and Non-Engineering Faculty andBetween Female and Male Engineering Faculty Creamer, E., & Layne, M., ASEE Conference, 2007 Scale of 1-4

8. A Comparison of the Correlation Coefficient BetweenWork-Life Scale and Job SatisfactionBetween Engineer and Non-Engineering Faculty andBetween Female and Male Engineering Faculty Creamer, E., & Layne, M., ASEE Conference, 2007 0.30-0.49  moderate correlation >0.50  strong correlation

9. “What are the Most Significant Issues/Challenges/OpportunitiesFacing Women Scientists Today as They Plan Their Careers?” Rosser, S.V. & Daniels, J.Z., (2004) J. of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (POWRE and CBL Studies) • Balancing work with family responsibilities (children, elderly relatives, etc.) ...……........................................................ 72% (112/154) • Low numbers of women, isolation and lack of camaraderie/ mentoring …………..…………..………………………….…..29% (44/154) • Gaining credibility/respectability from peers and administrators ………………………….…………………………………………18% (28/154) • “Two career” problem (balance with partners career)….16% (25/154) • Time management/ balancing committee responsibilities with research and teaching ………………………………………..12% (18/154)

10. the common challenge facing every new faculty member is to “get tenure” • they are expected to: • teach at or above their institutions average • do research above their institutions average • perform some level of service

11. New Professor Teaching Tips • Understand your student’s knowledge • you have more knowledge on the subject • Understand your students’ routine • stick with routine • Understand your student’s behavior • a function of background • Attend faculty development seminars • network with other new faculty

12. New Professor Research Tips • Understand your institutions labs • good lab, good credibility • Understand your institution’s research office • these are your “friends” • Consider interdisciplinary and collaborative research • a team player but with identity • Manage your students carefully • communicate expectations and SOPs • Keep publishing forefront in your goals • publish or perish

13. New Professor Service Tips • Carefully select committee assignments • get max exposure • Get involved in your professional society • network • Give advice to the new person • new collaborations

14. Words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels. Inayat Khan

15. How Difficulties Were Navigated There was little tolerance by the research community for “leave” of any sort. If you temporarily take leave from the community, say to have children, people assume you aren’t being productive. One must maintain some presence during leave, even if somewhat superficial. I had to apply for full professor twice. I did feel that a higher bar was placed on me than similarly qualified male faculty. However, I persevered and was finally promoted. When I had 8 AM lab to teach, I found a neighbor to watch my two little ones before school. There were times that I went straight from the airport (from an out-of-town conference) to back-to-school night or a school play. There were also times that I drove to school, taught a class, drove home to take a child to a doctor, then drove back to school again to finish my day. My husband's support was crucial always!

16. How Difficulties Were Navigated I have a very understanding spouse who also understands the time commitment required to be successful in academia. The main difficulty is that I’ll never know if my kids’ lives would have somehow been better if I hadn’t always been so busy that time with them had to be “scheduled” to some degree… My biggest challenge has been in dealing with a very difficult and time-consuming personal situation. There was a period of 2.5 years in which my father was terminally ill and my daughter had medical needs (and could not be placed in daycare). I considered taking leave, but I didn’t know when to take it… I tried to make sure that I met all team/department/college obligations, but I did have to postpone some things that would benefit my career – papers, proposals, etc. My colleagues were very supportive and understanding. Academia (and supportive colleagues) offered a degree of flexibility that would not have been found in industry, I think..

17. How Difficulties Were Navigated It is slightly more difficult being a woman in some ways. Oddly, I haven’t had problems with “my own people” – i.e. faculty – but have had other administrators exhibit jealousy because I got a lot of publicity and plum external committee appointments. This is not my summary – it came from a former vice-president I had who felt I should know. I dealt with difficulties at work either by laughing it off or by screaming to my husband and friends about what an idiot the offender was. My husband volunteered to watch our three kids (2 ½, 7 & 10) if I decided to go back to school full-time, then he complained and/or bragged about being Mr. Mom 4 nights a week while I took the required courses.

18. How Difficulties Were Navigated Without getting into any details, I feel that sometimes I have to really fight to get what I believe that I deserve. In my opinion, due to human nature, some people feel most comfortable with people like themselves. However, people can’t argue with experience and accomplishments. At this point, I feel that I’ve proven myself and everyone I work with respects me and takes me seriously (including students). There are both pluses and minuses to being a woman. Being a woman in this field, I am always visible, which has presented me with opportunities. However, I’ve had to work at being taken seriously. Our husbands have been pivotal in reducing our stress levels by supporting our goals and by shouldering a more equalized share of the household and childrearing responsibilities. We have helped ourselves by letting them help us, which is sometimes difficult to do when we are bucking against the gender roles dictated by societal norms.

19. How Difficulties Were Navigated I extended my tenure clock by one year due to the birth of our first child. The administration has made it clear that I am a mother and wife first, and an administrator second  - this is really wonderful. With a great job and a wonderful family, who needs sleep any way?

20. Be Careful… Because I was greatly involved in University wide services, including interdisciplinary administrative assignments, my work tended not to have direct results for my home department. As a result, I was not viewed as contributing greatly to my department's mission, and this meant that I did not receive the recognition within my department for my work (but my work was recognized outside my department).  Be careful to do what you want to do, perhaps the basic premise of “academic freedom”. The best research is the research for which you have the most passion/obsession. Be careful about the enemies you make. Think first and try not to explode. It’s good if you have a thick skin.

21. What you Wish you Knew at the Beginning that You Know Now To relax. Tenure was always put forward as a big hurdle - it's just one step along the way of a successful career. Also, be careful with taking on too many service assignments. I was overtapped for service as a junior faculty member, and had no mentor to tell me to say "no." Nothing. You learn as you go, change course if needed, and enjoy life. Not to teach too many different courses while you’re getting tenure. Teach well (otherwise why would you be in academia?), but don’t let teaching dominate your world (esp. in a research institution). Keep organized course notes so you can reuse at least the “good parts”. Cater as required to the funding agencies; also make sure you collaborate with colleagues at least in limited ways.

22. What you Wish you Knew at the Beginning that You Know Now I’ve always followed the philosophy “work hard, play hard”. This is good guidance for success and sanity as long as one has energy, but it’s easy to forget the “work hard” part if you’re in a place that does not motivate you. The time between beginning a doctoral career and getting tenure is too long to delay the pursuit of central ideals. Take a postdoc position to help mitigate the substantial difficulties with establishment in the community. However, one has to be careful not to “languish” as a postdoc. I incorrectly believed early in my career, that teaching at an ETI (engineering teaching institution) is a consolation prize.

23. What you Wish you Knew at the Beginning that You Know Now From my perspective, when one is a woman dean of an engineering school with its tradition of testosterone, it is indeed much harder. Same old story of having to prove yourself over and over again. But until young women appear in numbers in the profession in positions of leadership, this will not go away. I wish I had been able to find a "system."              I just worked (through the difficulties) to get everything done – I worried about tenure a little, but I never had time to PLAN or prioritize with tenure in mind. This was a deficiency on my part – I would have benefited from having a plan and using it as a guide (to “say no” to some opportunities). I wish I had known how to control time.

24. Words of Wisdom Life for EVERYBODY who successfully completes the tenure process is busy and stressful 24/7, as well as exciting and mind expanding. “Never burn any bridges.” My former boss who (reluctantly) had to lay me off when I was in industry ended up on my PhD committee. Networking is very important to women and I found AIChE a wonderful networking tool. Seek out support. If it cannot be found within your department – seek elsewhere. I found great support in ASEE which has a genuine interest in students. Remember that a University is a business and that the student is your customer.

25. Words of Wisdom • You need to: • Understand the “system” and what makes it work, what makes it tick. •  You need to have an honest understanding of yourself, of what you really want, what makes you tick. •  Armed with that information, you do yourself a favor to figure out how “you” and the “system” can work best together. • You have to be realistic that there are advantages and disadvantages with everything. • Advantages: • In Academia you get to work on projects that you want to work on, not what you are told to work on. • In Academia, you can control the amount that you travel which helps if you have a family. • Other than the hours that you are required to be in the classroom, you can adjust your own schedule. • Disadvantages: • Having been in Industry and Academia, there is more stress in Academia

26. Words of Wisdom Keep your ego in check. You have to come to the realization that you cannot do it all. When I first started as an assistant professor, I read The Door in the Dream, which overviews the life paths of women who have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. The pattern that I saw in their collective stories is that you have the choice of doing only a couple of things well at the same time. Being a female dean is surprisingly politically simple. The bulk of the work is communication and interpersonal interactions. If you grew up in a big family, “political” is the same in a dean’s professional life as it is in a big family: compete, collaborate, and generally get along. In fact, the stresses and the strains in my family life I found to be more intense than in my professional life – and I came from a close, loving family. One down side is that sexism is alive and well in upper academia. But don’t dwell on that: it’s a fact of life and competence and hard work win out often enough regardless of sex.

27. Words of Wisdom The main advice I can give is to take a job in a place where the atmosphere and your future colleagues feel right. The better the fit between you and the institution, the less energy you will have to expend making it better. And the more energy you will have to do what you love. Pick your environment wisely. While I gave up tenure and the tremendous institutional resources that foster cutting edge research, I gained more flexibility for balancing my career and family, in addition to the benefit of a smaller institution that has the ability to make decisions and craft teaching assignments to foster family life and can better address dual-career issues.

28. Words of Wisdom Keep a sense of humor, “get it in writing”, and knowing that you made a difference in someone’s life will make it all worthwhile in the end. Do not feel guilty about paying money to makes things easier for yourself, e.g., household help. Take credit for managing rather than doing (just like you do in the research lab). “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

29. If you Could“Do it All Over Again” If I had it to do over again, I would try to take better care of my health but probably wouldn't succeed. A better long-term plan would have helped me focus on the kind of activities that would help me achieve my career goals. Share experiences with each other and learn from each other to help one another succeed. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, and there is no need to feel isolated in navigating this road.

30. Just for Laughs…. Negotiating inclusion in suburban carpools to get my children to various activities was difficult. My oldest child competed in gymnastics and frequently had to be at practice before either parent got home. Each mother drove the car pool both ways for a week. I asked them if they would take turns driving there and we would pick up, but no. After they saw my daughter riding her bike to practice on a 4-lane road, they broke down and changed the carpool rules. With my youngest child, however, I was never able to break into a car pool for CCD so he just skipped it when neither parent could get home in time to drive him. This usually resulted in a scolding call from Sister. I My middle child has epilepsy and had a number of seizures at school in junior high and high school. My husband who worked 5 miles away was willing to pick her up, but the school nurse insisted on calling Mom who was 40 miles away. We finally got through the fact that she has two parents and it was O.K. to call the man.

31. Final Thoughts…. “When I was getting ready for my qualifying exam, I paid each of my 3 kids a $1/hr to play outside in the backyard so I could study.” I one day found myself in a quandary: according to the plan – never articulated in the academy, but generally understood by all – everything was fine. Like Balboa upon finding the Pacific Ocean, rather than joy, I was professionally void. While large scale research was fun and rewarding (I was named an NSF Presidential Young Investigator), I found that it lacked a certain satisfaction. Perhaps it was that as the projects get bigger, one moves away from the day-to-day research that draws us to the career in the first place. Satisfaction in teaching, which is truly a passion of mine – was not to be found. I felt more like, and was, a person on stage attended by a cohort of TAs, speaking to an audience of 150 (sort of) interested students. Personal contact with students: to be avoided lest it take time from research, or more important, proposal writing. In a word (or three): what a mess.

32. Final Thoughts…. My students once painted my pinkie fingernail a funky color to remind me that I should never take myself too seriously. To this day, from time to time, I still paint that pinkie fingernail a little funky (while making sure it is “Dean worthy”) to continually remind myself. I think that helpful, positive rituals are a wonderful tool. “When I taught a late class, I rarely got home before my 2 girls went to bed so I used to write them a short letter that my husband would read to them when he tucked them in.” “When I had my first child, my chair suggested that I try and be productive with my time off by writing some grant proposals.”

34. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. Henry David Thoreau