Faculty & Key Project Personnel

Dr. Sonya Smith, Principal Investigator
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Institutional Lead, NSF POETS ERC
PI, NSF Howard University ADVANCE -IT (HU ADVANCE-IT)
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059
Tel: (202) 806-4837
Email: ssmith@howard.edu

Summary Of Background

Dr. Sonya T. Smith joined the Howard University faculty in 1995 and is the first tenured female faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and recently became the first woman promoted to the highest academic rank of Professor (full) in this department at Howard University in 2010. Since joining the faculty, Dr. Smith has established an interdisciplinary theoretical and computational research laboratory entitled the Applied Fluids-Thermal Research Laboratory (@FTERLab). She has received support for her research from NSF, NIH, NASA, DOD and industry. In 2010, she was named an ORISE Fellow at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Dr. Smith has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  Her memberships in other professional societies include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

Howard University is a partner on a new, $18.5 million Engineering Research Center(ERC) for Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems (POETS). The ERC Director is Dr. Andrew Alleyne, Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in partnership with Howard University, Stanford University and the University of Arkansas. ). The Howard Team is led by Dr. Sonya T. Smith, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Called POETS, the Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems center will attack the thermal and electrical challenges surrounding mobile electronics and vehicle design as a single system. Partners from around the world will build new technologies like three-dimensional thermal circuitry for cooling, next-generation power converters, and algorithms for coordinating the technologies automatically. They will look at those technologies from the microchip level all the way up to an entire vehicle.

Dr. Smith is Principal Investigator for the Howard University ADVANCE-IT (HU ADVANCE-IT) award. HU ADVANCE-IT is committed to solving the institutional and national problem of Advancement and Leadership of Women in STEM. This award, funded by the National Science Foundation will enable Howard University to develop an innovative and strategic model for institutional transformation that increases the number of female leaders in the STEM disciplines.

Dr. Smith is a fellow of the American Mechanical Engineering Society and she is very active in a large number of women and diversity organizations.  The goal of these societies and organizations is to promote the careers and professional careers of women and minorities. She has mentored a large number of students, many of whom have been sponsored by large DOD contractors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA and others.

Lynne Kelly, Ph.D, Co- Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Finance
School of Business
Howard University
Washington, DC  20059
Tel: (202) 806-1658
Email: ljkelly@howard.edu

 

Summary Of Background

Dr. Lynne Kelly joined the faculty at Howard University in 2006 and is the first woman in the Department of Finance and International Business to receive tenure in finance.  Her areas of expertise are real estate and investments.  Her research focuses on international real estate portfolio formation, global housing markets, mortgage delinquency and default, real estate investment trusts, and bond fund performance.  She also conducts financial literacy research with an emphasis on race disparities in wealth accumulation.  Her work appears in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Business and Economics Research, and Journal of Finance Case Research.  She has received grants from the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development (SFE&PD) and Experian to provide financial literacy training to HBCU students.   Her membership in professional organizations includes the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA), American Real Estate Society (ARES), and Financial Management Association (FMA).

 

Dr. Kelly teaches graduate courses in Financial Management and Microeconomics for Business and undergraduate courses in Business Finance, Finance Principles, and Managerial Economics.  She currently serves as Faculty Advisor for Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., a national business and professional women’s organization, and the Financial Literacy Student Ambassadors Program of SFE&PD. She is also faculty liaison for the Ph.D. Project, an organization that was founded to increase the diversity of business school faculty.

 

Prior to joining the faculty at Howard University, Dr. Kelly worked as a Senior Development Engineer at The Dow Chemical Company where she had assignments in Production and R&D.  She led product development activities in the Americas. Her responsibilities included product conceptualization, formulation, technical and financial evaluation, lab-scale production, scale-up, and commercialization.

Her academic qualifications include: Ph.D., Finance, George Washington University, Washington, DC; MBA, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; and B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

ARLENE P. MACLIN, Ph.D, Program Manager
Senior Program Staff
Institutional Research Engagement Program (IREP)
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059
Email: arlene.maclin@howard.edu
Tel: (202) 237-8915

Summary Of Background

EDUCATION
Ph.D.,Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, Howard University
M.S.,Theoretical Nuclear Physics, University of Virginia
Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges
B.S., Engineering Physics, cum laude, North Carolina A & T State University

Internationally recognized and recently chronicled in TheHistorymakers for her outstanding achievement as an educator, researcher, administrator and mentor, Dr. Arlene P. Maclin is a physicist by training and has spent the past 35 years in a combination of academic and government service positions.  Her academic service includes more than 20 years of teaching at the levels of associate and full professors with administrative experience at the level of an associate dean of a college of arts and science, and a director of research at HBCUs.  She has also served as the director of several major research grants in excess of $10M. Dr. Maclin served previously as the Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Consortium- Center for Academic Excellence at Morgan State University that included four HBCUs in the Mid-Atlantic Region and reported to a high level governing board including college presidents and high level corporate and government officials.  Concurrently, Dr. Maclin served as the Delta Sigma Theta Distinguished Professor Endowed Chair/ Division of Natural and Behavioral Science at Bennett College where she reported directly to the Provost.  She gave lectures, mentored students, increased the number of students receiving summer internships at national laboratories and admission to graduate school and developed a strategic plan for the STEM programs. Dr. Maclin has an extraordinary track record for developing undergraduate and graduate programs in optical physics and optical engineering. For example, she managed grants at Hampton University in excess of $10M and served at the co-principal investigator for a NASA grant that allowed the university to establish the PhD degree program in optical physics.  She has developed numerous science education programs for K-20 students. Dr. Maclin has also served as a technical consultant and developer of the Washington Baltimore Hampton Roads (WBHR) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program led by Howard University with Morgan State University, Bowie State University, the University of the District of Columbia, Virginia State University, Hampton University, and Norfolk State University as members. For more than 25 years, Dr. Maclin has provided technical proposal development support to all of the Alliance member institutions as a faculty colleague or as a technical consultant.  She has extensive experience developing and evaluating science and mathematics programs for teachers and students in high school and postsecondary education.  She also served as the program director for the Minority Science and Engineering Institution Program (MSEIP) at both the National Science Foundation and transitioned the program to the Department of Education.  In those positions, Dr. Maclin monitored and directed projects in excess of $5M per year at more than 40 HBCUs that had been awarded grants through the MSEIP Program. She is an active recruiter of undergraduate and graduate students for STEM programs throughout the nation. She has published more than 50 papers and abstracts in referred journals and has made more than 250 presentations and talks to technical audiences throughout the world.  Her current areas of research include theoretical investigations of nanostructures and STEM research on new pedagogies for teaching and learning.

Dr. Lenora Peters Gant- Technical Consultant
Phone: 202.641.3835
Email:petegant@comcast.net
Email:lenora.petersgant@Howard.edu

 

 

Summary Of Background

Education

Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Certificate 2011 ·Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, PHD 1997
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Certificate 1999 1997 ·Vanderbilt University, George Peabody College, M.A.1977

·              Florida A & M University, School of Business, 1973

Career/Professional Experiences

Dr. Gant, a member of the National Senior Intelligence Service, is serving in an executive role at Howard University, School of Business, on an Inter-governmental Personnel Agreement (IPA) as a National Security Executive Fellow and Senior Advisor until July 31, 2018. Key roles and responsibilities include building credible partnerships in support of America’s National Security Enterprise, 17 Intelligence Community agencies; she collaborates with deans and professors across multiple disciplines aligned with National Security critical mission sets nationally and around the globe. Prior to this assignment, she led the ODNI Office of Policy and Strategy Career Mobility Program Initiative (CMPI) where she oversaw and directed over fifty senior executives and program managers across five ODNI Directorates.  She led the Academic Outreach and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) that impacted national and international talent for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. She built coalitions, partnerships, and leveraged resources among NGA, DOD/USDI, ODNI, industry, and academe partners to optimize mission capabilities on a national level. She was appointed as the Deputy Assistant DNI, Human Capital for the Intelligence Community (2009) by the DNI, Admiral (RET) Dennis Blair.  Dr. Gant served as the Director of the ODNI Intelligence Community (IC) Centers of Academic Excellence, comprised of over 30+ colleges and universities across the U.S., 2005-2012. Dr. Gant maintained collaborative partnerships with federal agencies, academia, and industry.  From 1998-2002, she served as senior advisor/special executive to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Central Intelligence Agency, and the Deputy DCI for Community Management for workforce management, training/education, human resources, and IC Enterprise corporate diversity management for 17 National-level Intelligence agencies. Her career expands more than 25 years and include positions with Department of the Navy and Marine Corps (Okinawa, Japan), U.S. Air Force (Oxfordshire, England), U.S. Army, Marine Corps Institute, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency—National Defense Intelligence College.  Dr. Gant performed duty assignments in Japan, Oxfordshire, England, NATO in Brussels Belgium, and Italy.  She is the author of several publications that include People & Strategy—Priming the Talent Pipeline: Redefining the Supply Chain for America’s Intelligence Enterprise(Vol. 35, Issue 3).  She is an independent consultant and CEO of Five Star Consulting, LLC.

  • Initiated, designed and developed the first Secure Distance Learning Networkfacility at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that facilitated teaching and learning for military troops around the world in support of the 10 Military Commands; thesis advisor to graduate students in the Masters Program for Strategic National Security Studies, Joint Military Intelligence College; directed and facilitated the development of the first Directorate of Administration Strategic Plans aligned with DIA Vision 21, 1991 – 1998.
  • Initiated the first National Intelligence Educational Programat Trinity University in the Department of International Affairs; designed curricula offerings aligned with accreditation procedures and processes; approved by the Faculty Management Committee, 2002 – 2004
  • Created the first-ever Intelligence Community Centers of Academic Excellencein National Security Studies, including STEM for the Intelligence Enterprise, comprised of 17 national-level intelligence agencies; originated the concept of operations with measures and metrics that result in Congressional approval and authorization of a multi-million dollar grant budge over the Five-Year budget cycle for competitive universities. The HPSCI noted that the IC CAE Program was the Gold Standardfor grant programs across the U.S. 2005 – 2012.
  • Created the first-ever Geospatial Sciences (GS) Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE)at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 2014-2016; the GS-CAE was comprised of 18 universities across the U.S. Built mutually beneficial relationships with university presidents, officials, deans and professors that ensured longer-term partnerships and attract talent for mission critical mandates.
  • Created the first Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Career Mobility Programfor subordinate
  • Advisor, International Scholar Laureate Program (ISLP);facilitated foreign and diplomatic trips to South Africa, Australia, China and Eastern and Central Europe for cultural immersion students from universities across the U.S., 2002 – 2007
  • Advisor to the American Society for Engineering Education; workshop and study group participate to identify best pedagogical methodologies for matriculation; engagement with industry and workplace sponsorship in developing a holistic approach to developing engineering talent, 2013
  • Senior Advisor to the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, a DOD STEM and Workforce Development Study Initiative, 2014.