Yvette E. Pearson
A Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Dr Pearson is recognized globally for her work that uniquely combines expertise in sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion. As past chair of ASCE’s Formal Engineering Education Committee (a subcommittee of the Committee on Sustainability), she led initiatives to infuse engineering curricula with principles of sustainability and to promote strategies towards the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing targets aimed at ensuring equity for people in traditionally marginalized and/or vulnerable populations. Her assessment and evaluation expertise includes nearly two decades leading school-wide and program-level assessment efforts, conducting internal and external program evaluations, and leading studies of organizational climate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As past vice-chair of ASCE’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, she was part of the team that first integrated DEI into the Code of Ethics, providing specific leadership for the principle that requires engineers to consider the diversity of the communities they serve and to include diverse perspectives in planning and performing their work. In 2019, she was appointed as the inaugural chair of ASCE’s board-level advisory committee, MOSAIC (Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture), which is charged with leading the Society in all matters of DEI for the civil engineering profession. For three years, she served as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF, where she managed a portfolio of roughly $70M in awards. Dr Pearson holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Chemistry from Southern University and A&M College, a Graduate Certificate in Educational Research Methodology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a PhD in Engineering and Applied Science from the University of New Orleans. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana and a Commissioner for the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET.