Erin Henslee to speak at annual American Society for Engineering Education conference 

Associate Professor of Engineering Erin Henslee has been named the Distinguished Speaker for the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) annual conference Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI). Taking place in Charlotte from June 22 to 24, the CDEI will celebrate scholarship, build community, and foster meaningful dialogue at the ASEE’s annual conference. 

Henslee’s speech titled “Inclusive and Equitable Engineering Classrooms Start with Intentionality and Authenticity!” will take place on Tuesday, June 23. In her speech, Henslee will review important lessons learned throughout her 15-year career as an engineering educator. 

Her insights will offer chances to challenge participants to think more deeply about how educators can connect with their students more intentionally, authentically, and transparently. Her speech will also offer opportunities for deep dialogue on advancing inclusion in engineering education by translating research into actionable, intentional practices that support both technical competence and lifelong learning. She will ask fellow educators what authenticity looks like in their classrooms and ask everyone to share an action they’ve implemented to center students as co-creators.

Henslee is a founding faculty member of Wake Forest’s Department of Engineering, where she co-founded hiddenstem.wfu.edu, a site that shares best practices for inclusion teaching in STEM. She has spent the last eight years teaching at Wake Forest and seven years teaching at the University of Surrey. In her 15 years of teaching, she has developed undergraduate courses and labs for general, aerospace, mechanical, biomedical, and automotive engineering. She is also a math enthusiast who enjoys teaching the computational side of engineering, including numerical methods and programming. 

Her research focuses on the electrophysiologic properties of cells, measured using lab-on-a-chip assays to delineate how these properties relate to disease, drug resistance, circadian biology, and cell patterning. She strives to find ways for engineering applications to complement, improve upon, or give new insights to existing lab-based measurement tools. She also focuses on sustainable practices in lab-based research, e-sports science, PhD and early-career researcher development, and public engagement with research.

Henslee earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and her Graduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education from the University of Surrey. She received her Master of Science and Bachelor of Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.