News Story

Paige Smith Elected President of Women in Engineering ProActive Network

Paige Smith, director of the Women in Engineering Program at the Clark School, is the new president of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN).

WEPAN is a national not-for-profit organization with more than 700 members from engineering schools, small businesses, Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations. The organization works to transform culture in engineering education to attract, retain and graduate women.

Smith provides strategic direction on recruiting and retaining women to the Clark School. She has 19 years of experience working with women and other underrepresented populations in engineering.

Smith is currently the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation STEP (STEM Talent Expansion Program) grant that extends successful Women in Engineering retention programs to all first year and new transfer students in the Clark School. She also is the lead for the Mid-Atlantic Girls Collaborative (MAGiC). MAGiC, a regional collaborative within the NSF funded National Girls Collaborative, brings together girl serving organizations across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., that are committed to increasing the number of young women pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Smith is the 2009 WEPAN Distinguished Service Award recipient. Under her leadership, the Clark School's Women in Engineering Program received the 2008 National Engineers Week Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day Award. She served as secretary of WEPAN from 2004 to 2007 and as co-conference chair of the 2010 Joint National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates/WEPAN National Conference. Dr. Smith earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering and B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. 

September 19, 2012