Stacy Klein-Gardner, adjunct professor of biomedical engineering, has received a 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pre-College Engineering Education Division of the American Society of Engineering Education.
The award is given to a PCEE Division member who has provided a high standard of service in alignment with the division’s vision, mission and core beliefs and in support of pre-college engineering education efforts within ASEE, and who has made significant and sustained contributions to the field of pre-college engineering education. Klein-Gardner is an ASEE Fellow.
Klein-Gardner’s career focuses on K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, particularly as it relates to increasing interest and participation by females.
She is co-director and co-PI for Engineering for US All (e4usa), an NSF-funded program that makes engineering more accessible to high school students and educators. She also partners with other universities in NSF-funded research to develop the Engineering Design Process Portfolio Scoring Rubric.
Klein-Gardner ran NSF-funded programs such as Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) for nine years. She served as the associate dean for outreach in the Vanderbilt School of Engineering from 2007-2010.
She established the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools engineering pathway from K-12 with Race to the Top funding in 2010-2011. Through ASEE, she created the Standards for the Preparation and Professional Development of Teachers of Engineering and their related matrix and led the development of the ASEE Engineering Teacher Professional Development Endorsement.
She received a BSE in biomedical and electrical engineering from Duke University in 1991, a M.S. from Drexel University in 1993 and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1996.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615 343-6314
brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu