Engineering professor named KEEN Community Catalyst

Jacqueline Gartner, assistant professor of engineering, has been recognized by the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) as a Community Catalyst, School of Engineering Dean Jenna Carpenter announced this week.  

KEEN is a network of thousands of engineering faculty working to “unleash undergraduate engineers” so that they can create “personal, economic and societal value through the entrepreneurial mindset.” 

KEEN Community Catalysts are faculty across the country who support the KEEN network by engaging faculty with similar interests in teaching and learning. This is primarily done through the KEEN website, where professors can publish cards, or materials that they have implemented in their engineering classrooms. The Community Catalysts go through these cards, evaluate them for quality, and connect the authors of the cards through various forums on the KEEN website. It is a great way to get to know folks in the KEEN network and become familiar with the content on Engineering Unleashed (their website).

“Campbell’s approach to engineering integrates the KEEN framework deliberately in a few ways throughout our curriculum,” Gartner said. “The KEEN framework involves the three C’s: curiosity, creating value and connections. As engineering professors, we are encouraged to integrate these into our curriculum. In various projects in the junior and senior year these ideas are integrated with certain modules, as well as through the first-year courses [ENGR 120 and 121].”

Gartner joined Campbell’s School of Engineering as an assistant professor in 2017 after earning her PhD in chemical engineering from Washington State University, where she was an NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Fellow and a Teaching Fellow for the Voiland School of Engineering. 

“We are delighted that Dr. Gartner will be serving as a KEEN Community Catalyst,” Carpenter said. “KEEN’s focus on engineering education that emphasizes curiosity, connections and creating value aligns well with our focus on a hands-on, project-based approach.”