Alice Pawley

Alice Pawley serves as Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University's College of Engineering, with her office located in 1325 Armstrong Hall on the West Lafayette campus. Her work spans engineering education, diversity and inclusion, and social justice within engineering contexts, with particular focus on gender and race dynamics in the field.

Dr. Pawley's research interests center on critical examinations of engineering education through feminist and critical race lenses. She investigates how engineering education structures marginalize students from underrepresented backgrounds, with specific attention to microaggressions, team dynamics, and institutional barriers. Her work explores engineering identity formation, sustainability in engineering education, and qualitative research methodologies that center minoritized voices. She advocates for transformative approaches that shift engineering education toward greater equity and inclusion.

Her recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on identifying and addressing systemic inequities in engineering education. Research trends show increasing emphasis on antiracist frameworks, neurodiversity inclusion, and practical interventions for creating more supportive learning environments. Her work often employs qualitative methods to uncover nuanced experiences of minoritized students and faculty.

Dr. Pawley leads the FREE (Feminist Research in Engineering Education) research group, mentoring graduate students including Canek Phillips, Kyle Jones, Corey Schimpf, Michele Yatchmeneff, Kacey Beddoes, Lindsey Nelson, and Marisol Mercado-Santiago. She co-founded the PEER Collaborative national workshop to support engineering education researchers through near-peer mentoring. Her commitment to student development is evident in her recommendation letter policy, which requires meaningful student-faculty interaction before writing letters of support.

Her research team actively engages in projects examining mental health in engineering culture, distributed team models, and community-building for neurodivergent researchers. Dr. Pawley's work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical classroom applications, focusing on creating tangible changes in engineering education environments.