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Ken Ball is Dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He received his BSME degree from Lehigh University, his MSME and PhD in mechanical engineering from Drexel University, and completed post-doctoral studies in applied mathematics at Brown University. He previously served as the L.S. Randolph Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech from 2004-2012, and was Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow in Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin from 1989-2004.

Ken has been an active member of ASEE since 1992. He is currently the Campus Representative Coordinator for the Southeastern Section of ASEE, and has also served on the ASEE Constitution and Bylaws Committee. Ken is a member of the ASEE Engineering Deans Council Executive Board and its Public Policy Committee. Ken is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas and a member of NSPE. He is also active in the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, and is involved in legislative initiatives and public policy issues at both the state and local levels.

Ken is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a Fellow of ASME. He served on the Executive Committee of the ASME Department Heads Committee from 2006-2012, and was Secretary and Vice-Chair Elect. He is an ABET Program Evaluator and a Commissioner on the Engineering Accreditation Commission. He also serves on the ASME Board on Education’s Committee on Engineering Accreditation. In 2012, he was awarded the Edwin F. Church Medal by ASME for “eminent service in increasing the value, importance, and attractiveness of mechanical engineering education.” He has published over 100 technical articles and has obtained funding in excess of $20M for research projects and educational program development in engineering.

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Oscar Barton, Jr., Ph.D, P.E. is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University A native of Washington, D.C., Professor Barton received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Tuskegee (Institute) University, his M.S in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D degree in Applied Mechanics from Howard University. Dr. Barton joined the faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department at George Mason University fall 2014, after completing a 22 year career at the U.S. Naval Academy. His research focuses on the development of approximate closed form solutions for linear self-adjoint systems, those that govern the responses of composite structures, and the analysis of dynamic systems. More recently, He has mentored numerous midshipmen through independent research projects and has directed two Trident Scholars, the Naval Academy's flagship research program. He has published over 50 journal and conference articles on these topics.

Dr. Barton is actively involved in curriculum development and program assessment. He chairs ASME Committee on Engineering Accreditation. He serves a Commissioner for Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc. and was a program evaluator for 6 six years prior to joining the commission. Dr. Barton holds a professional engineering license in the State Maryland. He is a member of the Board of Education, ASME.

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Sharon Caraballo is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in George Mason University's Volgenau School of Engineering. The school's approximately 6,100 undergraduate students have a choice of 11 majors in the areas of engineering, computer science, information technology, and statistics. Her leadership in the development of the school's undergraduate programs draws from her extensive study and experience in forward-thinking higher education programs. She served as Clare Boothe Luce Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University before joining the faculty of George Mason University in 2004 as Associate Director of IT Undergraduate Programs. Caraballo was appointed Associate Chair of the Department of Applied Information Technology when the department was established in 2005. In 2007, she became Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs of the Volgenau School, with responsibility for marketing and recruitment for undergraduate programs, distance learning, enrollment analysis, and K-12 outreach. In this role, she also served as a Director of the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program (CGEP), a distance learning consortium among Virginia's public universities with engineering schools, and was State Chair of CGEP from 2008 to 2011.
Caraballo currently holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology. She is a member of the American Conference of Academic Deans, American Society for Engineering Education, and the Association for Computing Machinery, including its special interest groups on information technology education and computer science education. She also fosters the success of future applicants to the Volgenau School by serving on the Fairfax County Public Schools Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee.

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Liza Wilson Durant currently serves as the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement in the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University. Prior to her current appointment, she served as Department Chair and Associate Chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE). She received her BS and MS degrees from Cornell University and Stanford University respectively and her PhD in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include in situ bioremediation, the feasibility and economics of hazardous waste management and remediation, contaminant fate and transport in the environment, risk assessment and reduction, and environmental dispute resolution. She was twice awarded an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Environmental Science and Engineering Fellowship. During her tenure as an AAAS fellow, she served as a science advisor to the US EPA in the National Center for Environmental Assessment and in the Immediate Office of the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development.

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Dr. Michelle Marks is the Vice President for Academic Innovation & New Ventures at George Mason University. In this capacity she is responsible for identifying, launching, and sustaining educational initiatives that fulfill Mason’s strategic plan and generate financial resources to support students, faculty, and the educational mission. Charged with creating accessible student pathways and bringing learning science innovations to campus, Dr. Marks is leading strategic partnerships designed to deliver online programming at scale, create pathway programming for international students, and support adult degree completion at Mason. She is also forging critical relationships with businesses, government, and education institutions to support the university’s mission. Dr. Marks oversees Academic Innovation and New Ventures, the Office of Executive and Professional Education, Academic Initiatives and Services including the Registrar and Accreditation, the Office of Digital Learning, and Student Academic Affairs – Advising, Retention and Transitions.
Dr. Marks previously served as the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Associate Provost for Graduate Education at Mason. As a Professor of Management in Mason’s School of Business, Dr. Marks has spent her career researching organizational leadership development and teamwork. She has published studies illustrating the dynamic nature of the collaborative processes used by organizational teams and the critical roles of team leaders. In 2006, Dr. Marks was honored with the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award and was the recipient of the Executive MBA Professor of the Year award in 2008 and 2011.

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