Sheri D. Sheppard

Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design-related classes at Stanford University, Sheri Sheppard conducts research on how people become engineers.  From 1999-2008 she was the Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching principally responsible for the Preparations for the Professions Program (PPP) engineering study, the results of which are contained in the report Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field.  In addition, she served as Chair of Stanford’s Faculty Senate in 2006-2007, and as Associate Vice Provost of Graduate Education from 2008-2013. Dr. Sheppard was co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to form National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (EPICENTER; 2011-2016), and to form the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), along with faculty at the University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, and Howard University (2003-2009). She was co-principal investigator with Professor Larry Leifer on a multi-university NSF grant that was critically looking at engineering undergraduate curriculum (Synthesis), and from 1997-1999 served as co-director of Stanford's Learning Lab. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). She was awarded the 2004 ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award in recognition of distinguished accomplishments in engineering education, and the 2005, 2008 and 2011 ASEE Wickenden Best Journal of Engineering Education Paper Award. In 2010 she was recognized with Stanford’s highest teaching recognition, the Walter J. Gores Award, and in 2014 was named U.S. Professor of the Year-Doctoral and Research Universities (CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). Before coming to Stanford University, she held several positions in the automotive industry, including senior research engineer at Ford Motor Company's Scientific Research Lab. Dr. Sheppard’s graduate work was done at the University of Michigan.