The 2024 stEm PEER Academy
A Message from Michael Silevitch, SENTRY Director
Many thanks to the Centers of Excellence (COEs) partners who identified and encouraged ten successful applications to the 2024 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) PEERs (Practitioners Enhancing Engineering Regionally) program and the stEm PEER Academy.
The stEm PEER Academy is a strategy of the Engineering PLUS Alliance to empower, resource, and support a national network of change agents who will accelerate the implementation of high-impact, evidence-based practices at their home institutions to dramatically increase the annual number of underrepresented engineering graduates.
The Engineering PLUS Alliance, funded at $10 million over 5 years, is one of 17 National Science Foundation (NSF) INCLUDES Alliances of higher education institutions and the only Alliance focused on engineering. NSF INCLUDES is a nationwide initiative designed to build U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by increasing the participation of individuals from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. The Engineering PLUS Alliance posits that networked communities are needed to build an inclusive infrastructure that will drive the transformative, systemic, and sustainable change needed to increase the annual number of BIPOC and women earning undergraduate/graduate degrees in engineering to 100,000/30,000 by 2026.
The DHS PEERs. In 2023, the DHS Science and Technology Office of University Programs awarded funding to SENTRY for 10 DHS PEERS from the DHS Centers of Excellence and their MSI/Community College partners. The DHS PEERs will participate in a 2+ year professional development and research experience to design and build an Action Plan for implementation at their home institutions. They will be able to learn from and engage with the DEI program and data experts, researchers, and practitioners as they develop and seek funding for their projects.
DHS COEs are charged with “building a workforce representative of America’s diversity and cementing a culture of belonging, respect, inclusivity and courage to drive innovation…”. COEs are in a strong position to enhance the impact of their education and workforce programs and increase broad participation in the engineering and STEM fields. My vision and commitment are to see SENTRY emerge as a leader in promoting best practices for broader participation and to join with Greg Simmons and the DHS OUP toward implementing a meaningful strategy for institutional change and, ultimately, workplace change.
Below is the list of DHS PEERs participating in the 2024 Academy.
Reconnect 2023
Diana Cheng, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Towson University
Maureen Yarnevich, Professor, Towson University
Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense (CBTS) COE
Yuehua Wang, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA) COE
Urmi Duttagupta, Professor New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) COE
Martene Stansberry, Professor, Tennessee State University (2023 DHS PEER)
SENTRY COE
Kerry Meyers, University of Notre Dame, Associate Dean of Student Development & Director of Women in Engineering
Luke Landherr, Northeastern University, Chemical Engineering, COE Distinguished Teaching Professor, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies
Cheyenne Mason, Northeastern University, Assistant Director of DEI
Unity Jean-Louis, Manager of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, College of Engineering, Boston University
Syreeta Dukes, HBCU and HSI Campus Manager, Collins Aerospace; Howard University Campus Manager for RI&S, Raytheon Technologies