Donna Riley is a trailblazer in engineering education and a passionate advocate for inclusive excellence. As a founding faculty member of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college, Donna spent 13 years shaping the future of engineering through a gender-equity lens. Her innovative approaches earned her a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2005, where she developed critical pedagogies to revolutionize the engineering classroom.

A recognized leader in her field, Donna is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and was elected vice president of scholarship for ASEE in 2023. Her academic leadership extended to prestigious institutions like Purdue University, where she served as the Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Ed ...