Member Profile

Brooke Coley is an assistant professor in engineering at the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the Polytechnic School, Coley completed postdoctoral training at ASU in engineering education. Coley also served as the associate director for the Center for Diversity in Engineering at the University of Virginia and as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow, where she worked at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for several years.

Coley is a bioengineer and social justice scholar. In her work, she hopes to push the bounds of traditionally heteronormative engineering environments through transdisciplinary approaches. Intrigued by the intersections of engineering education, mental health, and social justice, Coley's primary research interest focuses on virtual reality as a tool for developing empathetic and inclusive mindsets. She is also interested in the lived experience of hidden populations in engineering education and innovations for more inclusive pedagogies. Coley also co-leads two NSF-funded studies addressing diversity in university-affiliated makerspaces and the impact on the identity formation of underrepresented undergraduate engineering students, and, most recently, exploring the untapped potential of community college undergraduate engineering students and the factors impacting their decision making pathways.

Coley is an advocate for inclusion in all levels of her work - research, teaching and service. She has a commitment to global connectivity and awareness and recently co-facilitated the workshop, "Inclusive Maker Pedagogies and the Power of Story for Innovative Engineering Education," at the Higher Engineering Education Alliance 2017 Conference in Can Tho, Vietnam. This past summer, Coley was also honored as an Apprentice Faculty Grant Recipient by the Educational Research Methods Division of the American Society for Engineering Education for her commitment to innovation in teaching and potential to make substantial contributions to engineering education. Next spring, Coley will introduce a new graduate-level course addressing the persistent inequities in STEM, with a focus on engineering. She is a strong supporter of student organizations and is a voluntary mentor for the newly formed Poly chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.