Monica Cox named chair of new Department of Engineering Education

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Dr. Monica Cox
Monica Cox, Chair of the Department of Engineering Education
The Ohio State University College of Engineering has named Monica F. Cox as the first chair of its recently created Department of Engineering Education.

Approved by Ohio State’s Board of Trustees on November 6, the new department was established to strengthen the college in its support of undergraduate education and graduate-level research in engineering education as a growing discipline.

Monica F. Cox (photo credit: Brent Russell)Professor Cox comes to Ohio State from Purdue University, where she was the director of the International Institute for Engineering Education Assessment and an associate professor in the School of Engineering Education. In 2011, she became the first African-American female to earn tenure in the College of Engineering at Purdue.  

“With the depth and breadth of her experience and her involvement with the latest developments in areas of educational research, technology, pedagogy and practice, Monica is well positioned to provide the strong, insightful and enthusiastic leadership that the new department will need to ensure long term success,” said Associate Dean Rudy Buchheit.

Professor Cox received a BS degree in mathematics (cum laude) from Spelman College, an MS degree in industrial engineering from The University of Alabama, and a PhD in leadership and policy studies from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

“We will build upon the strong foundation of the Engineering Education Innovation Center by expanding our teaching and research offerings to graduate students and by formalizing our strategic relationships with external stakeholders and other engineering departments,” she said. “I have no doubt that our creative and committed faculty, staff, and students will identify new ways to define and communicate our vision and mission to the world."

Her honors include being selected as a National Academy of Engineering Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education New Faculty Fellow; a participant in the inaugural National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers in Engineering Education conference; a 2008 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award recipient; and a 2008 recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. In September 2011, she was invited by the White House and the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama to serve on a panel highlighting the importance of workplace flexibility for scientists and engineers.

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