Dr. Jenna Carpenter

Biography

Dr. Jenna P. Carpenter is Founding Dean and Professor of Engineering at Campbell University. With a hands-on, project-based approach all four years, Campbell School of Engineering focuses on design and utilizes unique classlabs to seamlessly integrate lecture and lab. The program also emphasizes teaming, communication skills, student internships, professional engineering licensure, professional development training and service learning. The School has earned a Bronze Award from the ASEE Diversity Recognition Program and is a KEEN Partner Institution.

Prior to coming to Campbell, Carpenter was Wayne and Juanita Spinks Endowed Professor, associate dean for undergraduate studies and director of the Office for Women in Science and Engineering at Louisiana Tech University’s College of Engineering and Science. A Corsicana, Texas, native, Carpenter earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Louisiana Tech and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Louisiana State University, where she was an Alumni Federation Fellow. Her research focuses on integrated STEM curricula and improving the number and success of women in engineering, with over $4.3 million in funding to date.

Carpenter is a member of the U.S. Engineering Deans Council Executive Committee, where she co-chairs the Undergraduate Experience Committee. She is also a member of the Executive Committee for the Global Engineering Deans Council. She is chairing the Pilot Program Ad-Hoc Committee on the Gulf Scholars Program for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Carpenter served for seven years as chair of the Steering Committee for the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars Program. She is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and an Engineering Program Evaluator for ABET. She is a past president of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, past Vice President of Professional Interest Councils for the American Society for Engineering Education, and past first vice-president of the Mathematical Association of America. She has a TEDx Talk entitled: “Engineering: Where are the Girls and Why aren’t They Here?” She was awarded the Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 2019. In October 2015, Dreambox Learning named Carpenter one of its 10 Women in STEM Who Rock.