Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Education Lola Eniola-Adefeso, a professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, shares her perspective after seeing the challenges women and people of color face in academia.
With a mindset to leave spaces better than she found them, professor Eniola-Adefeso outlines what institutional changes can be made to make engineering more equitable as part of the “Inspiring Transformation” series created and curated by the Center for Academic Innovation and the The National Center for Institutional Diversity.
Last year, Professor Eniola-Adefeso was a senior author on a perspective piece published in the journal Cell, which called on National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to address the stark disparity in research funding between white and Black scientists. In 2019 alone, the gap amounted to $32 million.
NextProf future faculty program returned to University of Michigan last fall after two years touring partnering campuses. Since offering the first NextProf Workshop in 2012, over 1200 students have participated.
Beginning in 2018, three institutions have partnered with Michigan Engineering—UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech have helped expand NextProf Nexus, and UC San Diego has done so with NextProf Pathfinder. This multi-institutional momentum ups the ante on a long-term investment in diversifying talent in engineering academia, not just for U-M but for the whole field.
Eniola-Adefeso is a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, the associate dean for graduate and professional education in engineering, and a professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering. Her lab is a pioneer in cellular adhesion & vascular targeted drug delivery. Last year, she became Associate Dean for Graduate & Professional Education.
Professor Eniola-Adefeso is amongst the 19 professors recognized by the U-M regents for commitments to scholarly inquiry related to DEI, inclusive teaching and mentoring, as well as impactful service and engagement that has provided greater access and opportunity.
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