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SHAWN JORDAN, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches context-centered electrical engineering and embedded systems design courses, and studies the use of context in both K-12 and undergraduate engineering design education. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Education (2010) and M.S./B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Jordan is PI on several NSF-funded projects related to design, including an NSF Early CAREER Award entitled “CAREER: Engineering Design Across Navajo Culture, Community, and Society” and “Might Young Makers be the Engineers of the Future?,” and is a Co-PI on the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments grant “Additive Innovation: An Educational Ecosystem of Making and Risk Taking.” He was named one of ASEE PRISM’s “20 Faculty Under 40” in 2014, and received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2017.

Dr. Jordan co-developed the STEAM Labs™ program to engage middle and high school students in learning science, technology, engineering, arts, and math concepts through designing and building chain reaction machines. He founded and led teams to two collegiate Rube Goldberg Machine Contest national championships, and has appeared on many TV shows (including Modern Marvels on The History Channel and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC) and a movie with his chain reaction machines. He serves on the Board of the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ, and worked as a behind-the scenes engineer for season 3 of the PBS engineering design reality TV show Design Squad. He also held the Guinness World Record for the largest number of steps – 125 – in a working Rube Goldberg machine.

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Kalvin White, Ph.D. is from White Cone, Arizona. He earned his doctorate in Counseling Psychology in 1998 from the University of Utah. Dr. White is currently employed with the Office of Dine Science, Math, and Technology within the Department of Dine Education under the Executive Branch of the Navajo Nation Government. Dr. White was the Principal Investigator of the Navajo Nation Rural Systemic Initiative. In 1998 the Navajo Nation received a National Science Foundation grant with the charge to close the achievement gap that exists on the Navajo Nation between Navajo and non-Navajo students in math and science. The NN-RSI documented the closing of the achievement gap at the end of the grant award August 2005. Through the efforts of the NN-RSI the Navajo Nation has sustained the NN-RSI with Navajo Nation funds as the Office of Dine Science, Math and Technology. As such, Dr. White and the staff of the Dine Science, Math, and Technology continue to advance the systemic initiatives within the Navajo Nation.

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Ieshya Anderson is Naakétł’áhí (Tohono O’odham), born for Tł’ááshchí’í. Her cheii is Naakétł’áhí and her nálí is Tódích’íi’nii. Ieshya graduated from Arizona State University, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, emphasis in electrical systems. She is pursuing her PhD in Engineering Education Systems and Design at Arizona State University. Ieshya also continues to work with Dr. Shawn Jordan to develop engineering design curricula for middle school students on the Navajo reservation and facilitates Dr. Jordan's STEAM Machines™ outreach camps across the Navajo Nation with the ambition to expand to Tohono O'odham Nation.

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Chrissy Foster has her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University. Her dissertation study was a narrative exploration of Native American women as they served as agents of change for their Native communities.

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