New Interim Engineering Dean Shepherd is Full-Steam Ahead

Jennifer Shepherd has been a chemist all her adult life, and at Gonzaga since 1998. And she loves teaching and the research work she performs with undergraduate students in her lab.

But she couldn’t be more inspired to lead the School of Engineering and Applied Science as its interim dean for the next two years, an appointment made last spring after serving one year as department chair of mechanical engineering at former Dean Karlene Hoo’s request.

This writer went to her office for a half-hour interview and 90 minutes later left with five pages of notes about all the ideas she had – many of them derived from engineering faculty she had listened to during her orientation for this new role – to help inspire faculty, elevate their work and build additional alliances with business and industry folks.

“She has drive, tenacity and really digs in,” says Mary Hunt, administrative assistant for the school.

These are just some of the things Shepherd accomplished during her first two months on the job (take a big breath): met with faculty and staff to focus on priorities, challenges and opportunities; began discussions to create more faculty and staff support for improving the student experience; with the SEAS leadership team, created a more defined vision and goals for the school; with staff, held an organizational development retreat with focus on team building; developed new recruiting and promotional materials for the school; organized a Gonzaga research opportunities summit and developed an organizational plan for a new engineering, computer science and math undergraduate research program; made connections with higher ed partners to pursue research funding and collaborations and will pursue the same with Gonzaga’s new Institute for Informatics director; and sent out dean updates to SEAS personnel to illuminate school highlights and faculty/staff accomplishments.

This “lightning-in-a-bottle” dean has pooled resources and created two needed staff coordinator positions for maker space and labs, and machinist and project support. She also promoted two tech staff: Beau Grillo to manufacturing support manager, and Wade Croft to electronics technician. The school is searching for five tenure-track positions this fall, including two biomedical engineering professors – an inaugural chair and a junior faculty position to start the program, as well as professors in mechanical and civil engineering, and computer science.

She just can’t contain her excitement for expanding opportunities for faculty, staff and students in engineering and applied sciences. She appreciates the support she receives and says her greatest joy is feeling the energy and excitement of faculty and staff for a more defined vision in their school.

“She has revamped file sharing in the school and is centralizing it in a Teams site that everyone (faculty and staff) can see,” says Associate Dean Tim Fitzgerald.

Shepherd and her school are proposing a new Center for Materials Research, an outgrowth of plans for a Tech Hub in Spokane. “We started with chemistry and mechanical engineering, brought in civil engineering, environmental science and biology,” she explains. “The idea of this center is to support materials characterization for academic and industry partners. We can house this instrumentation center in Bollier 238, a place our faculty can use for their research, for advanced teaching labs and to support local industry.” This plan is in the developmental stage.

Gonzaga recently received a $1 million National Institute of Science and Technology grant to equipment Bollier Center with needed instrumentation. Another $1.66 million grant will be under Congressional consideration in 2025 for instrumentation in the materials research center.

Also in Shepherd’s vision are continued development of new graduate programs in cybersecurity, data science and materials science. Funding is a critical need and faculty will be called upon to work with GU’s Sponsored Research office to write grants to help in this effort.

“If you talked to me a year ago, there is no way I would ever have thought I’d be in a position to serve as a dean,” Shepherd says. “I have really grown up as part of this Gonzaga community, and my experiences have prepared me for this.”

Now she is full-steam ahead and not easing off the throttle. At a place she admittedly loves.