Dr. Cassandra McCall believes in putting out the welcome mat. What makes her work as an Assistant Professor in Utah State University’s (USU’s) Engineering Education Department particularly important is her mission: She uses anti-ableist approaches to enhance universal access for students with disabilities in STEM.
Dr. McCall holds BS and MS degrees in civil engineering, with a focus on structural engineering, from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Her research concentrates on the intersections of disability, identity formation, and culture. She has led several workshops promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities and other minoritized groups in STEM. She believes that uplifting women engineers with disabilities benefits the field by accessing diverse perspectives, promotes innovative problem-solving, and inspires others who face similar challenges.
At USU, she serves as the Co-Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Transition Services. In 2024, Dr. McCall received a National Science Foundation CAREER grant to identify systemic opportunities for increasing the participation of people with disabilities in engineering. She has published award-winning articles in leading national and international engineering education research journals. The following is an edited version of my conversation with Dr. McCall.
Civil engineers positively impact society by making the world a better place. They have different pathways for building careers after earning their undergraduate degrees. What inspired you to transition from industry to academia after completing your civil engineering degree?
After completing my undergraduate degree, I did two internships, one for the South Dakota Department of Transportation and another for a local engineering firm, to build technical and professional skills. After working in construction companies, I felt I had pigeonholed myself into a construction-based career that was not welcoming to women. Then, I attended graduate school to find more opportunities to establish myself professionally. During that time, a summer research program on engineering education, which focused on increasing the representation of women in engineering, inspired me to continue to work in academia. I was the first South Dakota School of Mines student to complete a master’s thesis project in engineering education.
How does your paper, “Advancing from Outsider to Insider,” address how to retain talented women in engineering?
Based on my research, we can relate engineering inside and outside the classroom by bringing students as they are, as who they are (what I call outsiders) into the course content (where they become insiders). For example, I let my students select a course project based on their personal interests as they relate to material science. Such activity helps engineering students to integrate their personal and professional identities through the experiences and practices they learn during undergraduate education. Hence, one of my strategies is to help them build a passion for engineering by working on innovative, real-world projects that impact society and are meaningful to them.
Does engineering ableism limit opportunities for women with disabilities to contribute fully so that they can be successful in STEM?
The low number of engineering students who identify themselves as having disabilities is one reflection of marginalization. My research has involved surveying undergraduate women with disabilities. Some of the participants felt that they might fall on extreme ends of a spectrum, either as very smart or as unfit since they might need accommodations to complete tasks. Furthermore, people may think that students with disabilities cannot be engineers since engineers fix the problems that these students experience. Such feelings [and attitudes] can produce negative behaviors like withdrawal and self-doubt [in students who might otherwise consider engineering as a field]. These misunderstandings, the lack of inclusivity, and bias against people with disabilities can prevent their talents and abilities from being appreciated in the workforce. They are also more likely than their peers to leave their engineering programs.
I think the first thing we need to do is to change our mindset and attitude: We should view disability not through a medical model but instead through a social model. Only then will we create policies and environments that address the unique and diverse needs that exist across different communities.
Do you have an achievement you are particularly proud of in your career?
I am particularly proud of three achievements: the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation on Innovation for Inclusion: Transforming Engineering through Scalable Accessibility; the Teacher of the Year Award at USU’s College of Engineering in 2024; and the impact of my commitment to project-based learning, helping my students get engaged in meaningful projects about real-world problems. These accomplishments make me feel that my innovative teaching strategies give my undergraduate students a unique opportunity to research, learn, and get skills to pursue a career in engineering.
How does your paper “Developing Resilience” address how undergrad engineering students can identify everyday stressors and get stress-relief?
Initially, this was a part of a project I worked on with undergraduate researchers during my post-doc position. Based on interviews with participants, we found three contexts and five tactics in which undergraduate students experience and manage stress. Those three contexts for stressors include academic-related activities, personal relationships, and out-of-class activities. Students employed the following stress-reduction tactics: participating in social or out-of-class activities, networking, self-management, transferring skills (applying skills learned on the job to the classroom or vice versa), and self-reflection on personal growth. The study also showed that as students experience stressors, they develop resilience through using these tactics and through developing a positive mindset. Thus, they further develop skills and strategies that lead to their college success and willingness to face new challenges.
As a civil engineer and educator, what advice would you give to future women engineers?
Don’t be afraid to be yourself and to ask questions. Build a supportive network around you. Talk with your professors. They can provide you with valuable support and guidance when you face any challenges. They may offer alternative solutions like recommending resources or providing extra assistance to help you overcome difficulties. Communication is one of the critical factors to success. Also, when students, especially women, can connect engineering to their personal interests and passions, it just makes their journey toward engineering more approachable and attainable. Remember that social media is a powerful platform for personal branding. It can connect you with potential collaborators worldwide and can open new pathways for professional growth.
As a professor, what do you do personally to create an inclusive classroom?
First, I make myself approachable, which is key to building relationships with my students. I talk about disability accommodations on the first day of class and disclose that I am partially blind, which helps my students open themselves up to talking about their own disabilities, when relevant, without shame. As a part of my commitment to using the Universal Design for Learning, I state learning goals clearly; I provide educational material in a digital document format so that it is easy for students to adjust font sizes and background colors through technology; I also allow them to show what they know through a variety of formats, like PowerPoint, graphic organizers, and poster presentations. I am working on making all my course materials screen-reader accessible. I want to suggest that educators spend five to ten minutes a week slowly changing course materials to make them accessible for all types of learners. Such a small act, over time, leads to cultural transformation.
Do you know the organizations that are particularly effective in supporting and empowering women in engineering and women in STEM with disabilities?
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) provides its members with valuable programs like professional development, outreach, and networking with fellow women engineers. Interested engineers can join different local chapters of SWE. At USU, SWE invites speakers and organizes networking events. The Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) promotes and improves diversity, gender and racial equity, and inclusion in engineering by working with professional engineering societies to develop training programs for students and professionals. Also, don’t be afraid to join and stay involved in different local groups related to women in STEM. Interacting with professionals in such groups can provide engineers with opportunities to learn and to build relationships that help them achieve their professional goals.
Do you have any suggestions for AWIS?
AWIS Magazine should be accessible for screen readers and have sufficient color contrast for all content, as described in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Such modifications would improve the accessibility of the magazine’s web content for people with a wide variety of disabilities. [Editor’s note: Thank you for this feedback. We will investigate.]
Can you share more details about your current work on how disruptive technologies like ChatGPT are changing the landscape of engineering education?
We are figuring out how and when students choose to utilize disruptive technologies, and we are now focused on ChatGPT because many students and faculty talk about using it, and it is open access. It is like a calculator that students use as an educational tool. For example, instead of telling themselves, “I need to write a paper,” students can draft something and then tell ChatGPT, “Let artificial intelligence (AI) rate my paper on this topic and think about how I can improve my paper.” In this way, AI can help engineering students clarify their thoughts, explore new ideas, and be more creative.
One of the most significant impacts of AI in education is its ability to provide students with an individualized learning path to success based on their unique needs. We must require collaboration with AI rather than preventing it. As educators, we must prepare engineers for the rapidly changing technology era. We can adjust educational pedagogical practices if we gain more insights into how and why students use these technologies. Helping engineering students leverage AI to promote learning, not as a replacement for it, should be one of engineering education’s pedagogical priorities.
Shruti Shrestha is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Physics at Penn State Brandywine. She is a particle physicist who worked on the High Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel sensor for the Mu3e Experiment. She also conducts free STEM workshops in the Philadelphia area to empower girls to pursue STEM degrees.
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