McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member 
Anne M. Robertson, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was 1 of 19 women faculty selected to participate in ELATE at Drexel®, a collaborative project of Drexel University and Drexel University College of Medicine. Now in its second year, ELATE at Drexel is a national leadership development program designed to advance senior women faculty in academic engineering, computer science, and related fields into effective institutional leadership roles within their schools and universities.
Dr. Robertson was nominated by Pitt Provost Patricia E. Beeson, PhD, and recommended by US Steel Dean of Engineering Gerald D. Holder, PhD, and Minking Chyu, PhD, Leighton and Mary Orr Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Fellows begin the first of three week-long, in-residence sessions when they meet for the first time at the ACE Conference Center in Lafayette Hill, PA, on July 31, 2013, and conclude with a symposium in March 2014.
“Dr. Robertson has a proven track record of leadership at the University of Pittsburgh. The ELATE program will further enhance and expand her leadership skills to build a strong foundation for her future at Pitt,” Dr. Beeson said. “She is highly regarded among the engineering faculty, her students, and her research colleagues, and I am very pleased to support her in this important endeavor.”
“I am excited to join this talented group of engineering faculty in a highly respected program tailored to address the underutilization of women engineers in academic leadership positions,” Dr. Robertson said. “I greatly appreciate the support of Provost Beeson, Dean Holder, and Dr. Chyu for my candidacy in this program.”
Dr. Robertson was the first woman hired into a tenure-track position in the Swanson School’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and served as Director of the Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering from 2004-2008. Dr. Robertson leads a research team that investigates cerebral aneurysms, which are pathological outcroppings of brain arteries that can lead to fatal brain hemorrhages. Earlier this year, her team was awarded a coveted National Institutes of Health R21 grant to study the link between hemodynamics and wall structure in cerebral aneurysms. The team’s long-term objectives are to establish new pharmacological-based treatment methods for cerebral aneurysms and improve clinical treatments that function by altering flow in the aneurysm dome.
In 2007, Dr. Robertson was awarded the Beitle-Veltri Memorial Outstanding Teaching Award, given annually to one faculty member in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh as well as the Robert O. Agbede Faculty Award for Diversity, in recognition of significant contributions to enhancing and supporting diversity in the School of Engineering. She is also a member of the faculty in the Department of Bioengineering and a research professor at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. She earned her BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and her MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was also a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
About ELATE at Drexel®
ELATE focuses on increasing personal and professional leadership effectiveness, leading and managing change initiatives within their institutions, using strategic finance and resource management to enhance the missions of their organizations, and creating a network of exceptional women who bring organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to the institutions and society they serve. Facilitated by leaders in the fields of STEM research and leadership development, the curriculum includes classroom lessons and activities, online instruction and discussion, and on-the-job application at each Fellow’s home institution.
The Fellowship year concludes with the completion of an Institutional Action Project, developed in collaboration with the Fellows’ dean or provost. These action projects are not only designed to address an institutional or departmental need or priority, but also help the Fellows understand the challenges institutions face and the skills a leader must possess in order to address these challenges.
