Blaisdell previously served as director of the Women in Applied Science and Engineering Program at Arizona State University. She holds a master's of counseling and Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Arizona State University. At WPI, she reports to Janet Richardson, associate vice president of Student Affairs and dean of Student Life. Blaisdell aims to enlighten young people about the wealth of opportunity in engineering. Biomedical engineering is an example of a fertile career area that too few girls explore, said Blaisdell.
Girls love to see a job is going to make a difference in people's lives.
Blaisdell's new job follows a national trend in bringing more minorities and women into engineering and science education. Among other responsibilities, she will work with WPI's research administration on garnering funding from the federal government and industry for that purpose. We're always going to need engineers - they are integral to the functioning of our world. We have to recruit the best minds, no matter what packaging they come in. Blaisdell notes that gender differences are disappearing in math and science achievement tests in K-12 education.