Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence

Jacquelyn Sullivan was appointed associate dean in the College of Engineering and Applied Science in February 2008. She is founding co-director and director of K-12 engineering for the Integrated Teaching & Learning Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, which is focused on integrating hands-on engineering throughout the K-16 learning experience.

In 2008, she and ITL co-director Lawrence Carlson were awarded the National Academy of Engineering's top educational honor, the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, for establishing the K-16 ITL Program, widely respected as a national model for interdisciplinary, hands-on learning in engineering.

As director of K-12 engineering education, Sullivan initiated the ITL's K-12 program, making the world of engineering and technology come alive to about 2,000 K-12 teachers and students annually through professional development workshops, children's classes, summer design/build camps, and a summer resident program for under-served high school students. Dr. Sullivan also co-developed a retention-building First Year Engineering Projects course that introduces the design/build process to entry-level engineering students, and an undergraduate Innovation and Invention course that introduces entrepreneurship through new product invention.

She directs the long-term TEAMS (Tomorrow's Engineers...creAte. iMagine. Succeed.) partnership between the College of Engineering and a local school district to enrich students' academic STEM experience and better prepare youth to engage in a university-level engineering and technology path through weekly K-12 engineering instruction to about 1,700 students in grades 3-12. She also leads the multi-institutional initiative that created TeachEngineering — an online, searchable, standards-based, digital library collection of K-12 engineering curricula.

Dr. Sullivan served on the National Academy of Engineering's Advisory Committee for the public understanding of engineering research and communications initiative and also serves on the NAE committee on K-12 engineering education to provide an in-depth study of K-12 engineering in the U.S.

Prior to joining the higher education community in 1990, she had 14 years of engineering leadership experience in the energy and software industries. She served for nine years as the director of an interdisciplinary water resources and environmental engineering simulation and optimization research center at CU-Boulder.

She has been very involved in establishing K-12 magnet and charter schools in Colorado since 1993, focused on preparing all youngsters for a college future. She is a founding board member for the Denver School of Science and Technology — a highly successful public high school that immerses an urban student population in engineering and technology.

She earned her Ph.D. in environmental health physics and toxicology from Purdue University.