Download - Engineering Communicators Conference · Standards and Technology 2:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Small Group Discussions Debrief and Report-Out Attendees will self-select into topic-specific

EngineeringCommunicators Conference

JULY 9 – 10 THE LINE HOTEL, DC

2 - www.asee.org Engineering Communicators Conference

1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Introduction and Welcome

1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. Cool Ideas - Attendee Lightning Presentations

This session involves workshop participants engaging in brief, 3-5 minute discussions on unique and interesting approaches to communication efforts, sharing best practices that are somewhat out-of-the-box.

2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Engineering and Science Communication Experts

With shifting perceptions of STEM, higher education, and the media, as well as the continuous growth of technological platforms for conveying your message to the public, what does it mean to be in the business of “science and engineering communications?” Three experts will give their thoughts and answer questions on our unique specialty.

Moderator:Pamela Phetphongsy, Assistant Dean for Communications, Clark School

of Engineering, University of Maryland

Panelists:Randy Atkins, Senior Program Officer for Media/Public Relations,

National Academy of EngineeringDarlene Cavalier, Founder, Science Cheerleader and SicStarter;

Professor of Practice at Arizona State UniversityAnn Merchant, Deputy Executive Director, Office of Communications,

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Networking Break

MONDAY, JULY 9

Engineering Communicators Conference www.asee.org - 3

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Members of the Media Panel

A key role of any engineering communicator is to maintain relationships with members of the media and successfully pitch stories and ideas. This panel of engineering/science/higher education writers will talk about how to best interact with them, what ideas and angles they are currently looking for, and strategies for placing stories.

Moderator:Jenny Cox, Director, Engineering Communications,

North Carolina State University

Panelists:Laura Helmuth, Washington PostScott Jaschik, Editor and Founder, Inside Higher EdJeff Mervis, Science MagazineDan Berrett, Chronicle of Higher Education

5:30 p.m. Adjourn

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Reception and Networking with Colleagues and Invited Media

Dinner on your own

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Monuments Tour (separate registration required)

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE


7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Breakfast and Networking

8:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m. Diversity Considerations in Communications

In recent years, in response to both introspection and external pressures, the engineering and engineering education communities have increased their focus on diversity. This includes diversifying faculty and student bodies, perhaps most notably addressed in the Deans’ Diversity Pledge, signed by over 200 engineering deans. Issues around diversity have moved beyond gender and race to now include other internal as well as external dimensions of diversity. This session will focus on efforts to consider diversity in all its forms when communicating about our programs, colleges, faculty, and outputs. This includes images and words we choose to use; stories we pitch; and the audiences to whom we pitch. A group of communication experts representing diverse populations will engage in a panel discussion.

Moderator:Nathan Kahl, Managing Director for Communications and Society

Advancement, American Society for Engineering Education

Panelists:Christopher Carr, Director, Collegiate and Professional Programs,

National Society of Black EngineersTrina Fletcher, Co-Founder, Fletcher Education Solutions; Assistant

Professor, University of Arkansas at Pine BluffAnthony Shop, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Social DriverThuy Tran, Director of Marketing and Communications, Oregon State

University College of Engineering

TUESDAY, JULY 10


9:50 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. Effectively Using Social Media

Not since the introduction of email has a development “disrupted” the job of engineering communicators like the arrival of social media roughly 10 years ago. Now a mature platform (but with new tools appearing seemingly every few months), communication professionals have extensive experience using social media in their jobs but may need to learn new strategies. This panel comprises practitioners who are particularly adept at using social media to promote their institutions and engage audiences.

Moderator:Janet Gillis, Communications & Marketing Officer, College of

Engineering, University of South Florida

Panelists:Cara Gonzalez, Senior Digital Marketing Strategist, College of

Engineering, University of MichiganDawn McWilliams, Director of Marketing and Communications,

Cornell EngineeringBen Wright, Digital Communications Specialist, Georgia Tech

10:50 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. Networking Break

11:10 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, Presented by Bulletin MediaPresenter – James Rea

An interactive session that will discuss how to craft short, clear, conversational statements, intelligible to non-engineers, about what you do and why it matters. The session consists of an interactive presentation and discussion on interpreting technical material using examples and analogies to illuminate unfamiliar concepts to your audience. It will address problems and solutions in public interactions as well as peer-to-peer communication. Participants will be actively engaged in improvisation exercises and will practice clarity in speaking to non-engineers about your work.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE


12:50 p.m. – 1:50 p.m. Lunch

Sponsor Speaker: Kristin Torun, Director, Bulletin Media

Guest Speaker: ASEE Past-President Bev Watford, Associate Dean for Academic

Affairs and Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity, Virginia Tech

2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Leveraging Federal Agencies for Communications

The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and other federal agencies have robust communication efforts and seasoned staff. This session will examine how engineering communicators can work with agency staff to promote the federally funded work happening in their institutions.

Moderator:Brent Lancaster, Associate Director of Communication, College of

Engineering, NC State University

Panelists:Sarah Bates, Public Affairs Specialist, National Science FoundationJennifer Huergo, Director of Media Relations, National Institute of

Standards and Technology

2:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Small Group Discussions Debrief and Report-Out

Attendees will self-select into topic-specific breakout groups to debrief on the workshop to refine take-aways. The breakout groups will report out to the full plenary on lessons-learned and highlights of the workshop.

3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Wrap Up and Discussion of Future Workshops

What worked, what could be better, and what’s next?

TUESDAY, JULY 10


Randy Atkins is the Director of Communications and Media Relations at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He also leads the “NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering” project, based on 14 goals identified by an international committee of some of this generation's most accomplished technological thinkers, which is having wide-ranging impacts in education. Other projects Randy has led include “The Next MacGyver” which crowdsourced ideas for a TV show starring female engineer and a nationwide series of scenario-based workshops called "News & Terrorism: Communicating in a Crisis.” He reports weekly "Engineering Innovation" stories on the Washington, D.C. region’s most listened-to radio station, ABC affiliate WTOP. Before joining the NAE, Randy worked for the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society. Previously, he was an on-air reporter for a nationally-distributed science TV news series and a general assignment reporter at a local NBC TV affiliate. Early in his career, Randy worked as a microbiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. He holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Florida.

Dan Berrett, senior editor, directs coverage of teaching, curriculum, and research on higher education. Previously, he worked as a reporter for Inside Higher Ed, where he covered faculty issues and disciplinary associations, and for the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa., where his beats spanned elementary, secondary, and higher education. While at the Record, Berrett earned several awards from the state press association for investigative reporting, feature writing, and breaking news. His work has also work has also appeared in Newsweek and The New York Times, among other outlets. Berrett has also worked in the nonprofit sector, managing communications and writing grants. And he co-founded a sketch comedy troupe that appeared on Comedy Central and MTV, and performed internationally. Berrett received his undergraduate degree in English from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

CONFERENCE BIOGRAPHYCONFERENCE BIOGRAPHY


Christopher Carr is the Director, Collegiate and Professional Programs at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). He is the World Headquarters representative for the 232 NSBE collegiate chapters and 63 professional chapters around the world at conferences, workshops, panels, and webinars. Christopher mainly works in the area of STEM education and policy, with a particular passion for access to opportunity, diversity in STEM, and education retention. Christopher holds a Bachelor degree from William Jewell College, a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University, and he is currently working on his Doctorate in Education (Interdisciplinary Leadership) at Creighton University. His doctoral research focuses on examining the relationship between administrative responses to the changing nature of inclusiveness on college campuses and the non-cognitive development of African American students in the United States.

Darlene Cavalier is a Professor at Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy, & Outcomes, and the Center for Engagement and Training, part of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Cavalier is the founder of SciStarter. She is also the founder of Science Cheerleader, an organization of more than 300 current and former professional cheerleaders pursuing STEM careers, and a cofounder of ECAST: Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology, a network of universities, science centers, and think tanks that produces public deliberations to enhance science policymaking. She is a founding Board Member of the Citizen Science Association, a senior advisor at Discover Magazine, and a member of the EPA's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. Cavalier was recently appointed to the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning to identify and describe existing citizen science projects that support science learning in both formal and informal settings.[3] The committee will develop a set of evidence-based principles to guide the design of citizen science. She is the author of The Science of Cheerleadingand co-editor of The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science, published by Arizona State University. Darlene hold degrees from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania and was a high school, college and NBA cheerleader. Darlene lives in Philadelphia with her husband and four children.

CONFERENCE BIOGRAPHY


Jennifer Cox is the director of communication for the College of Engineering at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. She has spent the bulk of her 35-year career at NC State in various communication positions with engineering being her main focus. A member of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), she was tapped to chair the communications committee for the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists hosted by NASW and held in San Francisco in October 2017. She serves on NASW’s program committee and the communications subcommittee and was awarded NASW’s Diane McGurgen Service Award in 2017. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Communicators of North Carolina, the communications committee for the 11th World Conference of Science Journalists, which will be held in Switzerland in 2019, and the planning committee for the ASEE Communicators Workshop. She is a member of the University Research Magazine Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Jennifer lives in Wake Forest, NC, with her husband Mike, her dog Guinevere, and three cats, Spazmo, Nubbins and Piglet.

Trina L. Fletcher holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and a Master’s degree in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas. Trina went on to earn a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from George Washington University and holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University where she studied the recruitment and retention of minorities and women in the S.T.E.M. fields. Trina has interned with Norfolk State University, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Kellogg’s and completed the Global Operations Leadership Development program with Johnson and Johnson. Her honors include being named an Inspiring Woman by the New York Liberty and receiving the George Washington University Student Choice Award for Service Excellence. She most recently received the Brown Girls Rock award for her work in the field of education.

Janet Gillis Is the Communications and Marketing Officer, College of Engineering, University of South Florida. With more than 25 years of marketing and communications experience in diverse industries such as Human Resources Outsourcing, Franchising, Venture Capital and Publishing, Janet brought a broad base of knowledge from the business world to academia, when she created the first marketing and communications position at USF’s College of Engineering in 2009. Since then, she has built a dynamic department consisting of event planners, graphic designers, and marketing specialists that create integrated communications in support of the college’s strategic vision.



Cara Gonzalez is a Senior Digital Marketing Strategist at the University of Michigan She has had success, managing design projects and team collaboration, communicating effectively with diverse populations, implementing social media + branding strategies, and creating effective marketing materials, both digital and print. She says she’s “at home whether I'm doing creative or scientific work--and I believe that art and science bring out the best in each other.”

Laura Helmuth is the president of the National Association of Science Writers and the Health, Science & Environment editor for the Washington Post. She has edited for National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, and Science magazines. She serves on the advisory boards for High Country News and Spectrum. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley and attended the U.C. Santa Cruz science writing program.

Jennifer Huergo is director of media relations at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where she works to ensure the timely release of research and agency news, and maintain good relationships with the media. Prior to joining NIST, she served as a public affairs specialist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research. She has spent more than 20 years writing about science and technology and helping researchers tell their stories.

Scott Jaschik is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. He leads the editorial operations of Inside Higher Ed, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Scott is a leading voice on higher education issues, quoted regularly in publications nationwide, and publishing articles on colleges in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Salon, and elsewhere. He has been a judge or screener for the National Magazine Awards, the Online Journalism Awards, the Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, and the Education Writers Association Awards. Scott served as a mentor in the community college fellowship program of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, of Teachers College, Columbia University. He is a member of the board of the Education Writers Association. From 1999-2003, Scott was editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Scott grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from Cornell University in 1985. He lives in Washington.



Brent Lancaster has been the associate director of communication in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, since 2013. In that role, he manages print and digital communication projects that support the College’s 12 academic departments, academic affairs, recruiting, development and research. He also serves as the College’s media relations contact. Prior to coming to NC State, Lancaster spent 15 years as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in central North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, he and his wife have two children.

Ann Merchant has worked in marketing and communications for more years than she’d care to reveal at this point lest you begin calculating her advancing age. But it all adds up to an exciting, productive career characterized by creative challenges in service to mission-driven goals and objectives. She is currently the Acting Executive Director for Communications at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C., where she is responsible for a number of innovative outreach programs that contribute to an increased public understanding of science. With a special interest in promoting science, engineering, and medicine through non-traditional entertainment channels such as television, film, and videogames, she was instrumental in launching and now overseeing The Science & Entertainment Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Sciences that seeks to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers. She also has responsibility for the institution’s presence at large-scale outreach events such as the USA Science & Engineering Festival. In the now-distant past, Merchant served as marketing director for the Academies’ publishing division where she and her staff promoted and marketed more than 175 new titles every year.

Dawn McWilliams is the Director for Marketing and Communications for Cornell Engineering. She is responsible for strategic branding and marketing as well as leads the MarComm team in the creation of all publications, managing PR, social media, and website management for this college of over 5,000 students at Cornell. She has worked in higher for over 25 years bringing her expertise to two major Universities She has a BFA in Medical Illustration and an MBA in Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology, where she serves on their Alumni Board of Directors.

Jeffrey Mervis is a senior correspondent for Science magazine and has covered science policy in the United States and around the world for more than 3 decades. As a reporter his goal is to explain to scientists and engineers how government works and why they should care. It’s rarely simple, but it’s usually fun. He also tracks efforts to improve science and math education, and trends affecting the global scientific workforce. Mervis holds a BA in history from Brown University and began his journalism career on daily newspapers before joining Science’s news staff in 1993.

WORKSHOP BIOGRAPHY


Pamela R.M. Phetphongsy joined the University of Maryland in 2006. She is a communications strategist who works closely with thought leaders at every level to capture the passion and excitement that comes with discovery, education, and research innovation. After working in the nation’s capital providing communication support to association and federal executives, Pamela came home to her alma mater to build a communications team at the University of Maryland’s Center for the Advanced Study of Language. She has held several positions in the past dozen years, including communications director for the Vice President and Chief Research Officer. In 2014, Pamela joined the A. James Clark School of Engineering as assistant dean of communications. She leads a team responsible for the Clark School’s integrated marketing communications strategy and reputation. During her tenure as head of communications the Clark School has launched a new digital presence, expanded its media footprint, and announced Building Together: An Investment for Maryland, the largest investment in its 124-year history. Pamela has a Bachelor of Arts in English and women’s studies from the University of Maryland.

James Rea is a communications coach and consultant who specializes in helping scientists, engineers, and other technical experts reach their key audiences with clear, engaging stories. James started on this path nearly 20 years ago, when he took on a communications role with the U.S. EPA’s Design for the Environment Program. In 1998 James left the EPA to bring stories of science and sustainability to a wider audience as an independent reporter and producer for National Public Radio. His work aired on NPR affiliate stations around the country, most often reaching listeners via the airwaves of WAMU 88.5 FM in Washington, DC. In 2001, James began his own communications consulting practice, putting his skills to work for a variety of clients including the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. James continues this work now as an instructor for Alda Center workshops, driven by his passion for helping scientists, engineers and other technical experts share their inspiring and vitally important work with the world.

Anthony Shop is co-founder and chief strategy officer of Social Driver, an award-winning digital agency that helps companies connect with people today through websites, digital content and social media. An entrepreneur and pioneer in the field of digital marketing and social media, Anthony is a frequent speaker and media commentator, and most recently he was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow to research global trends in social media and misinformation, with a month-long sabbatical in China. Prior to founding Social Driver, Anthony served as press secretary for a top U.S. congressional race and as a journalist. He is also the first new media professional elected to the National Press Club's Board of Governors. He teaches at The George Washington University, where he earned his MBA.



Thuy Tran directs all marketing and communications efforts at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering. In this leadership position, she works to manage external perceptions, strengthen relationships with stakeholders, and support efforts to achieve the college’s strategic goals. After graduating from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and French, Thuy earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Hawaii. In her early career, she was a research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and held management positions in several engineering firms, including CH2M HILL, Lockheed Martin, and Los Alamos Technical Associates. While pursuing her technical career, she obtained an MBA in marketing from Washington State University. She was the director of marketing and communications for Oregon State’s College of Business before joining the College of Engineering.

Ben Wright is a Communications Officer in the Georgia Tech College of Engineering’s dean’s office. He manages all of the social media accounts for the largest engineering college in the country and serves as a social media resource for the communication managers within the College of Engineering’s eight schools. He has been a member of the communications team for 6.5 years, prior to which he worked in professional sports. Originally from Canada, Ben holds a master’s degree in Communication Studies from Wake Forest University and a BA from Crandall University.



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EngineeringCommunicators Conference