Stephanie Luster-Teasley Pass became the Dean of the College of Engineering at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in May 2024. The two-time graduate of the MSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (MS, 2000, Ph.D. 2003) has won awards for her service and innovation.
She talks about MSU and the future of engineering education in this Q&A:
How did MSU prepare you for this role?
MSU prepared me for my future career in higher education by providing me with the academic and research environment and examples of infrastructure I have sought to establish in my various roles at North Carolina A&T State University.
Over the last 20 years, I have used the strategies I learned at MSU to become a successful faculty member, researcher, and patent recipient. I used skills for project management, building strong teams, and working with alumni to help grow my department of Civil Engineering while I served as the department chair. As Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, I leaned heavily on my MSU experience with diversity, equity and inclusion practices that helped me to become an advocate for all our undergraduate students by developing policies, curriculum, and programming.
Now, as the Dean of the College of Engineering, I have been able to combine my Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) and MSU experience to continue to grow our academic and research programs in our 7 engineering and computer science departments.
How has your time at MSU informed the engineer and leader that you are today?
I had a significant amount of growth while I was a graduate student at MSU because I was able to adapt to being in an academic and research environment on a larger scale. My graduate school experience was challenging because my undergraduate training was at a smaller institution.
I had to rapidly adjust to the size, magnitude and resources available at a large R1 like MSU. I utilized MSU to its fullest benefit educationally, professionally and personally with the resources that were available to me as a student. I still rely on many of my mentors and professors from MSU for advice even now as a dean.
I am presently serving on the MSU College of Engineering Alumni Advisory Board. I see how both of our institutions share and seek to address many of the same challenges for recruitment, retention, student preparation, curriculum development, and supporting faculty. My experience as a student and now professional engaging with MSU will be intertwined for the rest of my professional career and impact how I continue to be an informed leader helping to contribute to the number of students pursuing engineering and computer science careers.
Where do you envision engineering education going? What are your hopes for the next phase of engineering education?
My hope is the next phase of engineering education and research will foster a spirit that combines entrepreneurship and agile thinking - where our students appreciate mastering the foundations of computer science and engineering but know they need to adapt to changing technologies and innovation.
I hope we can inspire the next generation of students who are aware of their power to contribute to diversifying thought, addressing the human condition, meeting the needs to improve society, and trained to think with an entrepreneurial mindset.
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