NEWS OF NOTE FROM PITT: News, Awards, and Developments From the University of Pittsburgh

• Engineering education society names Pitt professor Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre a fellow 

• Director of Pitt’s entrepreneurial institute elected to Team Pennsylvania Foundation Board

PITTSBURGH— Behind the larger stories about the University of Pittsburgh are other stories of faculty, staff, and student achievement as well as information on Pitt programs reaching new levels of success. The following is a compilation of some of those stories.

Engineering Education Society Names Pitt Professor Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre a Fellow

Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre, a University of Pittsburgh associate professor and Fulton C. Noss Faculty Fellow in Pitt’s Department of Industrial Engineering, has been named one of 12 new fellows of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE); the group was inducted as fellows at a special awards ceremony June 29 at the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Fellow member status is a distinction conferred upon those who have been members for at least 10 years and have made outstanding contributions to engineering education.

An associate in Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center and director of Pitt’s Engineering Education Research Center, Besterfield-Sacre has research interests in engineering education assessment and evaluation methods. She has written numerous conference and journal papers and has given many workshops and presentations in the areas of assessment and evaluation and has received funding for this work from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Sloan Foundation, Engineering Information Foundation, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. Her current research is on innovative product design, entrepreneurship, and modeling.

Besterfield-Sacre has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education and is now associate editor for the Applications in Engineering Education Journal. Prior to joining the University, Besterfield-Sacre was an industrial engineer with ALCOA and with the U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory.

She received her BS in engineering management from the University of Missouri-Rolla, MS industrial engineering from Purdue University, and PhD in industrial engineering from Pitt.

Founded in 1983, the ASEE is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. It accomplishes this mission by promoting excellence in instruction, research, public service, and practice; exercising worldwide leadership; fostering the technological education of society; and providing quality products and services to members. For more information, visit www.asee.org.

For more information, contact Pitt News Representative Trish White at 412-624-9101 (office), 412-215-9932 (cell), laer@pitt.edu.

Director of Pitt’s Entrepreneurial Institute Elected to Team Pennsylvania Foundation Board

Ann Dugan, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE), was recently elected to the Team Pennsylvania Foundation Board of Directors.

Dugan is one of only two Western Pennsylvanians elected to the 36-member board. The newly elected members will serve through June 2014.

Dugan will represent regional business interests in critical decisions concerning state economic policies regarding business growth and attraction, education and workforce development, and government efficiency. Dugan is also representing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett on the Oversight Board for the City of Pittsburgh and plans to utilize Team Pennsylvania for assistance in bringing Pittsburgh back to financial solvency.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to represent the business community of Western Pennsylvania to further the Commonwealth’s prosperity,” Dugan said. “Through IEE, I am constantly hearing from business leaders, future business leaders, and business educators about the strengths and challenges of our business community. I am honored to join an organization that exists to facilitate dialogue between businesses and government, and I look forward to sharing the concerns of and ideas from the region’s leading businesses and universities.”

The Team Pennsylvania Foundation, created in 1997, helps bridge the communication gap between government and the private sector, allowing for better partnerships between the citizens and businesses of Pennsylvania.

In addition to containing elected members, the foundation board includes Governor Corbett and the Pennsylvania Secretaries of Labor and Industry, Community and Economic Development, and Education. They are joined by 22 private sector CEOs.

“These individuals share in my administration’s commitment to driving economic prosperity in the Commonwealth and making Pennsylvania a world leader in a global economy,” said Corbett, cochair of the board.  “Their expertise and leadership will be a critical asset to the Team Pennsylvania Board of Directors.”

For more information about the Team Pennsylvania Foundation, visit http://teampa.com/.

For more information, contact Pitt News Representative Audrey Marks at 412-624-4238 (office), 832-296-7276 (cell), marksa@pitt.edu.

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