Susan Ambrose
Teaching Professor
D.A. Carnegie Mellon University, 1986
Department Member Since: 1986
Biography
Susan Ambrose is an historian and an administrator whose research has focused in three areas. Her most recent research has focused on faculty satisfaction and retention, studying the complexities of individual experiences as they shape decisions to stay or leave a university, and as they predict satisfaction or dissatisfaction. She has also studied women in engineering and science, exploring how class origin, sex, race and ethnicity, social conceptions of women, and other variables come together to influence women’s life decisions and careers. Finally, she has investigated the application of cognitive research to education, particularly engineering education. Her research has been funded by the ALCOA Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, the Lilly Endowment, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Eden Hall Foundation.
Ambrose has also been active as a consultant to circa fifty universities throughout the United States and in India, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. She was awarded an American Council on Education fellowship for 1999-2000 to study leadership styles of university presidents, and was named a Visiting Scholar for the American Society of Engineering Education and the National Science Foundation to work with the engineering colleges at the University of Washington-Seattle, Rice University, and Tufts University.
She is the Associate Provost for Education and Director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence as well as a Teaching Professor in the Department of History. She is responsible for advising the Provost on educational issues; conducting institutional research that impacts policy and/or practice; identifying and responding to changing educational needs of the university; maintaining overall operation of the Eberly Center (supporting faculty); and overseeing the Intercultural Communication Center (supporting non-native speakers of English) and the Office of Academic Development (supporting students).
Ambrose teaches courses on immigration to the U.S., both general introductory immigration courses and courses focusing on the Asian-American experience.
selected Publications
- “Assessing and Addressing Faculty Morale: Cultivating Consciousness, Empathy and Empowerment” with Marie Norman and Terri Huston, The Review of Higher Education, Vol. 29 (2) or Vol. 29 (3), 2006.
- “A Qualitative Method for Assessing Faculty Satisfaction” with Marie Norman and Terri Huston. Research in Higher Education, Vol. 46 (7), 2005.
- “Becoming a Professional Engineering Educator: A New Role for a New Era” with Dee Fink and Dan Wheeler. Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 94, (1), 2005.
- “Becoming a Master Teacher” with Michael Bridges. Advocate. Vol. 22 (3), 2005.
- “The ‘Newest’ Media’ and A Principled Approach for Integrating Technology into Instruction” with Joel Smith. Syllabus, June 2004.
- “Entering the Metals Zone” with Karen Chen. In C. Baille and L. Vanasupa (Eds.), Navigating the Materials World: A Guide to Understanding Materials Behavior. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 53-83, 2003.
- “A Tour of Ceramic Land” with Linda Vanasupa. In C. Baille and L. Vanasupa (Eds.), Navigating the Materials World: A Guide to Understanding Materials Behavior. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 85-108, 2003.
- “An Electronic Trip Through Semiconductors” with Emily Alleln. In C. Baille and L. Vanasupa (Eds.), Navigating the Materials World: A Guide to Understanding Materials Behavior. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 195-216, 2003.
- Navigating the Ph.D.: A Practical Guide for Women in Engineering and Science, with Barbara Lazarus and Lisa Ritter. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 2001.
- “An Introduction to the Community of Professors” with Ross Strader and Cliff Davidson. Journal of Engineering Education, 89 (1), 2000.
- “No Universal Constants: Journeys of Women in Engineering” with Barbara Lazarus and Indira Nair. Journal of Engineering Education, 87 (4), 1998.
- “Systematic Design of a Freshman Engineering Course” with Cristina Amon. Journal of Engineering Education , 86 (2), 1997.
- Journeys of Women in Engineering and Science: No Universal Constants, with Barbara Lazarus, Indira Nair, Kristen Dunkle and Debra Harkus. Temple University Press, 1997.
- “Fitting Programs to Institutional Cultures.” In P. Seldin (Ed.), Improving College Teaching, Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing , 77-90, 1995.
- The New Professor's Handbook: An Introductory Guide to Teaching and Research in Engineering and Science with Cliff Davidson. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing, 1994.
- “From Graduate Student to Faculty Member: Teaching Ph.D. Candidates to Teach,” In J.D. Nyquist, R.D. Abbott, D.H. Wulff, J. Sprague (Eds.), Preparing the Professorate of Tomorrow to Teach, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 157-167, 1990.
Courses Taught
| North of the Border: Mexican Immigration Past and Present |
| From Peasants to PhDs: The History of Immigration to the U.S. |
| History of Asian-Americans in the United States |
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