BEENA SUKUMARAN, PH.D.

Beena Sukumaran has been on the faculty at Rowan University since 1998 and is currently serving as President's Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion. She served as Department Chair and then Department Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2010 to 2017. During her tenure as Department Head, the department saw tremendous growth in student enrollment. Research funding in the department was also at a record during her tenure. The department also obtained funding and inaugurated a new transportation research center, CREATEs. She is currently serving as PI for an NSF Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Department (RED) grant for $1.9 M titled "Revolutionizing Engineering Diversity (RevED)". The research is looking at strategies to grow representation of women, underserved groups and ethnic/racial minorities in Rowan University's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, while at the same time enhancing inclusion through curriculum design, teaching and learning. She has also been involved in various outreach activities. She is serving as the Division Chair of the Women in Engineering Division of ASEE and is co-organizing the First Conference on Engineering and Computer Science Diversity (ConECD). She was the recipient of the 2011 New Jersey ASCE Educator of the Year award, the 2013 Distinguished Engineering Award from the New Jersey Alliance for Action and the 2016 New Jersey Department of Transportation Research Implementation Award.