Sheri D. Sheppard (born 1956) is the Burton J. and Deedee McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; Associate Vice Provost of Graduate Education; and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Curriculum, Mechanical Engineering,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. She focuses her teaching on

engineering design The engineering design process is a common series of steps that engineers use in creating functional products and processes. The process is highly iterative - parts of the process often need to be repeated many times before another can be entere ...

for undergraduate and graduate students. In November 2014, the Carnegie Foundation bestowed on her the U.S. Professor of the Year award.

Early life and education

Sheppard graduated from

William Horlick High School William Horlick High School (also known as Horlick or Racine Horlick High School) is a comprehensive public four-year high school in Racine, Wisconsin with an enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. The school opened to students in 1928, after ...

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

in 1974 and aimed to study law. As she explained, "...my father said that he would fund law school if I majored in engineering." She earned a B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978, and by that time she had become passionate about engineering. She went to the University of Michigan–Dearborn, and earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the

University of Michigan–Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1985.

Career

Sheppard has held positions in Detroit, working at

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

and also at Ford Motor Company's Scientific Research Lab. She started at Stanford as an assistant professor on the Mechanical Engineering faculty in 1986. Sheppard was promoted to associate professor in 1993, and achieved the rank of professor in 2005. Sheppard was chair of Stanford's Faculty Senate from 2006 to 2007. Between 1999 and 2008, she also served as Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where she had responsibility for the Preparations for the Professions Program (PPP) engineering study and report.

Research

Sheppard has studied fatigue and fracture of structural components, producing technical papers, reports, and textbooks on "weld fatigue and impact failures, fracture mechanics and applied finite element analysis." She has also led studies of engineering education, including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: ''Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field.'' Sheppard has been principal investigator on multiple National Science Foundation grants focused on engineer educational methods, including Synthesis Coalition (1986–1995), founding the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (2003–2009) and the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (2011–2016).

Honors

In 2004, the American Society for Engineering Education presented Sheppard with the Chester F. Carlson Award, sponsored by Xerox, as an "innovator in engineering education who, by motivation and ability to extend beyond the accepted tradition, has made a significant contribution to the profession." Stanford University honored Sheppard in 2010 with the Walter J. Gores Award, "the University's highest award for excellence in teaching...the Gores Award celebrates achievement in educational activities that include lecturing, tutoring, advising, and discussion leading". In 2012 Sheppard received the Ralph Coats Roe Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, for "notable professional contributions". Sheppard received Stanford's 2014 President's Award for Excellence Through Diversity, "for serving as a trailblazing role model for women in engineering". The Carnegie Foundation named Sheppard 2014 U.S. Professor of the Year, "for her innovative approach to teaching undergraduate students in a hands-on, problem-solving way that transforms large classes into small group learning laboratories". She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and the American Society for Engineering Education.

References

External links

Profiles.stanford.eduU.S. Professor of the Year
(video, 3:10 minutes)
EngineerGirl profile - Sheri Sheppard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheppard, Sheri D Stanford University faculty American mechanical engineers American women engineers Living people University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni American women academics Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellows of the American Society for Engineering Education 1956 births 21st-century women engineers University of Michigan–Dearborn alumni William Horlick High School alumni 21st-century American women Engineers from Wisconsin People from Racine, Wisconsin