Category: Inclusive Excellence

Ana Maria Porras, Ph.D., a professor and researcher, heads the Tissue-Microbe Interactions lab in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

For Department of Engineering Education Assistant Professor Jeremy Waisome, Ph.D., mentorship helped her pull through her graduate school journey.

Denise R. Simmons, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering and associate dean for Workforce Development in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, is the leading principal investigator for the $1.28 million, four-year project “Critical Conversations: Systemic and Agentic Empowerment of Black Ph.D. Students and their Faculty Advisors in Engineering,” which is sponsored by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program, an initiative of the National Science Foundation’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) division that supports racial equity in STEM.

Juan Gilbert, Ph.D., has pledged to help create a more supportive and inclusive computer-science environment for Black students, and continues that work as chair of the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. He thinks that vision is why the university ranks top in terms of the number of computer science PhDs awarded to Black students, and why it boasts the largest proportion of Black computer-science faculty members at any predominantly white institution in the United States.

Insight Into Diversity magazine has named the University of Florida as a recipient of the 2022 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. The award measures the efforts made by universities to expand upon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The award also assesses the initiatives, student recruitment and hiring practices at an institution.

How Damon Woodard, Ph.D., rose from being a high school dropout to become the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Notre Dame is a testament to the people who believed in him — and to the inner fire that refused to go out.

The University of Florida unveiled a historical marker honoring the integration pioneers who led the charge to desegregate the institution.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ryan Need, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), about their research, experience as a new UF faculty member, and their work with students, staff, and faculty to build a culture representative of the entire community.

Juan Gilbert, Ph.D., works on issues of bias in tech and the problem of voting in a pandemic. He has also written a set of guidelines for diversity and inclusion in crisis.

One of UF’s Gator Battalion Midshipmen has been selected as the 2019 Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) All American NAVY ROTC Student of the Year. Midshipman 1/C Jennifer Fillebrown competed against a national field of 58 other ROTC students and made the final 12. Now NFCU has named her the Navy/Marine winner from a field […]