About Us
Stories into Solutions is an active and ongoing project designed and maintained by a group of engineers, engineering educators, and those from other fields who are passionate about advocating for and creating better working conditions for women in engineering.
Additional stories about the struggles that many women face in engineering will be added to this site on a regular basis as we seek to add more voices, experiences, and calls to change within engineering culture. If you have a story that you would like to share, please feel free to contact us. All information shared with our group remains anonymous.
Additional stories about the struggles that many women face in engineering will be added to this site on a regular basis as we seek to add more voices, experiences, and calls to change within engineering culture. If you have a story that you would like to share, please feel free to contact us. All information shared with our group remains anonymous.
Thad Roppel
Electrical Engineering, Auburn University
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering
Michigan State University
Thad earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1986. As a faculty member at Auburn University, he has conducted research in the areas of solid-state electronics, sensors, artificial neural networks, and robotics. He has received multiple teaching and mentorship awards, and he routinely conducts outreach events, which primarily take the form of summer camps aimed at kindergarten through high school seniors.
As a youth, well before engineering was a blip on his radar screen, Thad studied and performed music. He still derives the greatest personal satisfaction from playing and composing music on various instruments, including piano, viola, and guitar. He has recently found a "home" for this calling by providing background music for Stories into Solutions.
As a youth, well before engineering was a blip on his radar screen, Thad studied and performed music. He still derives the greatest personal satisfaction from playing and composing music on various instruments, including piano, viola, and guitar. He has recently found a "home" for this calling by providing background music for Stories into Solutions.
Jennifer VanAntwerp,
Engineering, Calvin College
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
As a professor of engineering at an undergraduate four-year college, Jennifer has combined her passion for engineering with her passion for students, for teaching, and for vocation discernment. In this context, “vocation discernment” means guiding engineering students and young alumni through the lifelong practice of discovering and developing their talents and passions. Over her nearly 20-year teaching career, Jennifer has naturally engaged in this work through her role as the academic advisor to hundreds of engineering undergraduates. Jennifer’s current research focuses on career pathways, with a special emphasis on gender issues. This has included extensive interviews with working engineers about their career experiences.
Jennifer has also worked as a chemical engineer in a variety of industry settings (semiconductor manufacturing research and development, home and personal care products manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing research and development, and environmental engineering consulting). Her broad background of work experience and interviews provides a rich framework for her to interview participants and create these #StoriesIntoSolutions.
Jennifer has also worked as a chemical engineer in a variety of industry settings (semiconductor manufacturing research and development, home and personal care products manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing research and development, and environmental engineering consulting). Her broad background of work experience and interviews provides a rich framework for her to interview participants and create these #StoriesIntoSolutions.
Denise Wilson
Electrical Engineering, University of Washington
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Denise is a professor in the department of electrical engineering and adjunct professor in the school of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is also founder and managing director of Coming Alongside, an environmental services non-profit organization whose mission is to make hazards posed by the environment to human and animal health visible and actionable.
Denise leads research efforts which address problems in engineering education as well as in sensor technology as applied to environmental monitoring and management. In her education research, she has seen many differences between men and women in the way they progress through an engineering education and into an engineering career. As a professor in the engineering at a large public research university, Denise has watched and heard many stories of women in engineering over her almost 20 year career at the UW which has fueled her passion in telling these stories to a wider audience through #StoriesIntoSolutions and playing a part in promoting much needed culture change in many engineering and high tech environments. Denise contributes her expertise in web page design, technical writing, and storytelling to this project.
Denise leads research efforts which address problems in engineering education as well as in sensor technology as applied to environmental monitoring and management. In her education research, she has seen many differences between men and women in the way they progress through an engineering education and into an engineering career. As a professor in the engineering at a large public research university, Denise has watched and heard many stories of women in engineering over her almost 20 year career at the UW which has fueled her passion in telling these stories to a wider audience through #StoriesIntoSolutions and playing a part in promoting much needed culture change in many engineering and high tech environments. Denise contributes her expertise in web page design, technical writing, and storytelling to this project.