LAS VEGAS, April 12, 2005—Barbara Bogue, Affiliate Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and former Director of the Women in Engineering Program at The Pennsylvania State University has been selected to receive the 2005 Founders Award.

The award, given by the Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network, (WEPAN) recognizes Bogue’s dedicated service to the advancement of WEPAN and her scholarship of women’s studies that has contributed to an engineering infrastructure conducive to the success of women in the engineering profession. The Founders Award honors a WEPAN member who exemplifies the spirit of the WEPAN founders through her/his extraordinary long-term service to the organization. The award is named for the three founders of WEPAN, Inc. - Suzanne G. Brainard, Jane Zimmer Daniels and Susan Staffin Metz., and includes a $1,000 cash prize, a plaque, and an opportunity to serve as a keynote speaker at the next WEPAN national conference. Bogue was nominated by Dr. Judith A. Todd, P. B. Breneman Department Head Chair of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State.

Bogue’s long term service to WEPAN includes holding office as: Board Member; Conference Co-Chair; Proceedings/Assessment Conference Co-Chair; Founding Co-Chair of the Multicultural Committee; Conference Program Chair; Newcomers Committee Chair and Awards Committee Chair. Together with Susan Staffin Metz, she attracted support from the GE Foundation to develop the WEPAN/GE website www.FacultyForTheFuture.org. This is the only website dedicated to linking a diverse pool of women and under-represented minority candidates from engineering, science, and business with faculty and research positions at universities across the country. The site has gained widespread recognition and is currently serving 322 institutions and 420 candidates.

As Director of the Women in Engineering Program at The Pennsylvania State University, Bogue has dedicated herself to WEPAN’s founding goal – “to effect a positive change in the engineering infrastructure conducive to the academic and professional development of women and men”. With Rose Marra, she has led an NSF-funded project to Assess Women in Engineering (AWE). Through data collection and analyses, the AWE project aims to enable Women in Engineering Programs nationwide to assess their initiatives and programs, identify avenues for program improvement, evaluate program success, and benchmark with other institutions. Bogue received national recognition when she was invited to receive, on behalf of the College of Engineering at Penn State, the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Her contributions are best summarized in the description of this award. “Those honored have achieved remarkable results in increasing the participation of minorities, women and disabled students in science, mathematics and engineering. This Award identifies individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to mentoring students and exciting America's youth about science, mathematics and engineering.”

About WEPAN

WEPAN's mission is to catalyze change that will lead to the enhanced success of all women engineers in academic and professional settings. It has over 600 members from nearly 200 engineering schools, companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations, and nonprofit organizations. A national nonprofit educational organization, WEPAN, is headquartered in Denver. For more information, visit http://www.wepan.org

WEPAN presented the Founders Award to Bogue at the 2005 joint WEPAN NAMEPA (National Association for Minority Engineering Program Administrators) Annual Conference, held in Las Vegas April 10-14.

This item has been submitted courtesy of WEPAN