October 15, 2026
CERSE Staff Facilitate Sessions at RED Consortium Meeting 2026
CERSE Director Liz Litzler and Research Scientist Rae Jing Han recently attended the Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) Consortium Meeting that took place from September 30 to October 2, 2026, in Alexandria, Virginia. The REDCON meeting occurs annually and is an opportunity for RED grantees to learn from and share insights with other teams from across…
May 14, 2026
In Memory of Suzanne Gage Brainard
Suzanne Gage Brainard, PhD, a pioneering advocate for equity in engineering education passed away on April 12, 2026, one month after her 81st birthday. She was loved and will be missed by her family. In 1988, Dr. Brainard joined the University of Washington (UW) as the Director of Women in Engineering. She later became the…
March 16, 2026
CERSE Staff Author 2025 SWE Magazine Literature Review about Women and Girls in STEM
SWE Magazine recently published, “Women in Engineering and STEM: A Review of the 2025 Literature,” which was coauthored by CERSE Staff Michael Beach, Emily Knaphus-Soran, and Liz Litzler. For this work, the CERSE team examined 465 journal articles and conference papers from 2025 to synthesize the related gender and equity research themes from across the…
February 26, 2026
CERSE Staff Litzler and Han Co-Author with Collaborators an Article Outlining a Professional Development Curriculum for Academic Change Agents in Engineering
CERSE staff Liz Litzler and Rae Jing Han co-authored with other colleagues a practice-oriented article focused on a curriculum to help engineering educators make change. The open-access article was published in Education Sciences, and is titled, “Fixing the Potholes on the Road to Academic Success: A Curriculum for Engineering Educators to Create and Sustain Meaningful…
CERSE Director Liz Litzler Co-Authored Chapter in “Women in Academia”
CERSE Director Liz Litzler co-authored a chapter called “History of and Trends in Women’s Participation in Academic Computing” in the book “Women in Academia” edited by Jenna Carpenter. Liz’s co-authors were Kaitlyn Stormes, Kate Lehman, and Lecia Barker. This chapter outlines the history of women’s participation and organizations that have advocated for improvements in women’s…
November 8, 2025
New Article on Evaluating Program Sustainability
CERSE staff (current and former), Ari Hock, Jana Foxe and Liz Litzler recently published work sharing their qualitative rubric to help programs evaluate key aspects of their programs that will support program sustainability. You can read the open-access article in Innovative Higher Education Journal, so check it out!
May 23, 2025
CERSE Staff Publish Research on Preparing STEM Graduate Students for Community College Teaching Careers
CERSE staff members Jana Foxe and Liz Litzler, along with additional NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance Regional Change members, published an article in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice: “Broadening Participation in STEM Community College Teaching: Deliberately Preparing Graduate Students.” The study evaluates the Regional Change Initiative, a network of Regional…
January 22, 2025
CERSE Staff Collaborating with Faculty-led ASEE Team to Pilot Faculty Recognition Framework for Professional Development in Teaching
Engineering graduate students typically spend five years earning their Ph.D., conducting important, cutting-edge research in an area of national interest. Most of those who earn their Ph.D. in engineering wind up working in research positions within industry or government laboratories to start. A small percentage, however, become faculty members working at colleges across the US…
July 9, 2024
CERSE Staff Publish Research on Engineering Counterspaces to Support Students
CERSE staff members Erin Carll, Aryaa Rajouria, and Elizabeth Litzler, along with additional current and former University of Washington (UW) faculty and staff, published an article in Studies in Engineering Education: “Engineering Counterspaces to Address Inequities in Preparation for Undergraduate Academics.” The researchers explore students’ experiences with the Washington State Academic RedShirt program (STARS), which…
July 3, 2024
Aryaa Rajouria Receives the UW Department of Sociology’s 2024 Award for Best Performance for the Master of Arts Degree
CERSE Graduate Research Assistant Aryaa Rajouria was recognized with the Best Performance for the Master of Arts Degree award from the University of Washington’s Department of Sociology. Aryaa’s thesis, “Beyond Migration: Examining the Impact of Migration Experience, Gender, and Ethno-Caste Identity on Mental Health,” investigates the effects of migration on the mental health of migrants…
