BALTIMORE — On November 3, we installed new officers to the 2019-2020 ABET Board of Directors during our fall governance meetings in Baltimore. We also recognized three outgoing members: Stuart H. Zweben, Ph.D., Nicole M. Chestang and Michael Lightner, Ph.D.

The Board is our governing body responsible for strategic planning, financial oversight and managing the external relationships of our organization. It is also the final review body for appeal of decisions regarding accreditation actions for a specific program.

The ABET Board of Directors has 13 members, including the executive director and CEO (non-voting), five officers, four area directors, two at-large directors and one public director.

President

David P. Kelly, M.S., MBA, is ABET President. Kelly is the CEO and CTO of InnovaSea Systems. He has been involved in accreditation activities since 1995 and served as chair of the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET for the 2009-2010 cycle. He has served on the ABET Accreditation Council. Kelly has also been a member of several ABET ad hoc task groups examining accreditation for online and alternate delivery programs. Kelly is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of ACM.

Kelly holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

President-Elect

Dianne Chong, Ph.D., FSME, FASM, NAE, is ABET President-Elect. She has served as the vice president in the Boeing Research and Technology organization as well as the vice president of materials, manufacturing, structures and support in the Boeing Engineering, Operations & Technology organization.

Chong was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the Washington State Academy of Science in 2017. She currently serves on the National Academies’ Gordon Prize committee and the steering committee for EngineerGirl. Chong is a member of TMS, AIAA, ASM International, SME, SWE, Beta Gamma Sigma and Tau Beta Pi. Chong received her bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology from the University of Illinois. She also earned master’s degrees in physiology and metallurgical engineering. In 1986, Chong received her doctorate in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois. She also completed an executive master of manufacturing management at Washington University.

Past President

Mary Leigh Wolfe, Ph.D., is ABET Past President. Wolfe has represented the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) on the ABET Board of Directors since 2010.

Wolfe has been involved in accreditation of educational programs for 27 years. She was the chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET for the 2007-08 accreditation cycle and past-chair for the 2008-09 cycle. She began volunteering for ABET in 1991 as a program evaluator, and has since participated at every level of ABET accreditation.

Wolfe is professor and head of the department of biological systems engineering (BSE) at Virginia Tech. She is also president-elect of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and served as president for 2015-2016. She is a member of the ASABE Foundation Board of Trustees and has previously served on the ASABE Nominating Committee, Board of Trustees and Board of Directors. She is a Fellow of ABET, of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Secretary

Gillian Bond, Ph.D., is ABET Secretary. She is professor emerita of materials and metallurgical engineering at New Mexico Tech. Bond holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Imperial College, London University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Bath in the U.K.

Bond has been involved in ABET accreditation activities for 20 years, as a program evaluator for the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) as well as the American Ceramic Society (ACerS). She has also served as chair of the TMS Accreditation Committee. Her other volunteer activities with ABET have included: eight years (2006-14) on the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the last three as a member of the EAC Executive Committee; chairing the EAC Training Committee; appointment to the Global Council; serving as a support facilitator for ABET Program Evaluator Candidate Training; and participating in EAC Readiness Reviews.

Treasurer

David L. Whitman, Ph.D., P.E., is ABET Treasurer. Whitman received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming (UW) and his doctorate degree in mineral Engineering from the University of Wyoming. He worked in the synthetic fuels arena prior to becoming a faculty member in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming in 1981.

From 1989 to 2005, he was the associate dean of academics and since 2005 has been a professor of electrical and computer engineering. He received UW’s College of Engineering Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1990 and 2004 and the ASEE Rocky Mountain Section Outstanding Teaching Award in 2001. He is currently the past president of the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES), chairman of the IEEE-USA Licensure & Registration Committee and an active member of the American Society for Engineering Education.