Ecuador RPCV Priscilla Nelson is in the running for dean of Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences



Ecuador RPCV Priscilla Nelson is in the running for dean of Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Officials pick final candidates for engineering dean

By Erica Finley
News Writer
October 28, 2004

Three candidates are in the running for dean of Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences after a nationwide search for a replacement of current dean, Michael Atkins.

Janet Pisaneschi, dean of WMU's College of Health and Human Services, has led the search to replace Atkins, who is retiring after having served as dean of the engineering college since 2002.

Candidates for the position are Timothy Greene, Leo Hanifin and Priscilla Nelson.

[Excerpt]

Priscilla Nelson

Nelson received her doctorate degree in geotechnical engineering from New York's Cornell University in 1983. She has been with the National Science Foundation since 1994 and has served as senior adviser for the Directorate for Engineering at the foundation since 2003. She was awarded the NSF's Director's Superior Accomplishment Award in 1999.

She also teamed up with the Alaskan Resource Sciences Corporation from 1975-77 in which she served as field and supervising engineer on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, she served as an instructor at the Polytechnic Institute of Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1974. She was also a professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1994-96.

Nelson's professional interests include undergraduate, graduate and continuing engineering education and increasing diversity in the engineering profession.

When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Your vote makes a difference Make a difference on November 2 - Vote. Then take our RPCV exit poll. See how RPCV's are voting and take a look at the RPCV voter demographic. Finally leave a message on why you voted for John Kerry or for George Bush. Previous poll results here.

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference. RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls. Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate. Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

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Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.