9/7/2021 Huan Song
Grainger Engineering announced two new named appointments to recognize the remarkable contributions of faculty in engineering education.
Written by Huan Song
The Grainger College of Engineering announced the creation of two new named appointments aimed at recognizing the remarkable contributions of specialized faculty members who have demonstrated significant impact in advancing innovation in engineering education and learning. Bioengineering professor Jennifer Amos was appointed as the inaugural Laura Hahn Faculty Scholar and professor Karin Jensen was appointed as the inaugural Laura Hahn Faculty Fellow, effective Fall 2021.
The Laura Hahn named appointments will provide $10,000 per year of discretionary funds for three years to these faculty receptions. Faculty members will retain their named appointments after this three-year term.
Amos is a teaching professor in the department of bioengineering and is a world expert in assessment in engineering education and curriculum design. She also serves on key leadership roles across campus. Within bioengineering, she is the faculty program director of the Master of Engineering in Bioengineering degree program and the faculty mentor for many of the department's RSOs. Outside of the department, Amos is a part of the Provost’s Council for Learning Outcomes Assessment for campus accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission and played a key role in the development of the university's graduate medical education program by serving as a founding member of the new Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Amos also serves the bioengineering community as an ABET Commissioner representing the Biomedical Engineering Society and a member of the Board of Directors for the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Jensen is a teaching associate professor in bioengineering and joined the department in 2015. She is an established researcher in engineering education, focused on students' mental health and well-being. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has had a particular focus on adapting lab curriculum for remote instruction. Jensen was also the first teaching faculty from Grainger Engineering to have received the prestigious NSF CAREER award which recognizes her scholarship and contributions to engineering education. Outside of the university, she serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering and a member of the ASEE Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
These named appointments are dedicated to the late Laura Hahn (1961-2019), who was a three-time alumna of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, including a Ph.D. in Education Psychology. She served as the director of the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3), was an adjunct professor at Illinois and was a co-author for the book, "Women and Ideas in Engineering: Twelve Stories from Illinois." Hahn was a visionary leader in higher education and left a lasting impact on her community at large.