Pieronek Receives Outstanding Adviser Award

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has named Cathy Pieronek, director of academic affairs and the Women’s Engineering Program in the College of Engineering, their 2007 Outstanding Faculty Adviser. The inaugural award, honoring a SWE leader who has made outstanding contributions to a collegiate section as an adviser, was presented during the society’s national conference in October.

Pieronek was cited for her “dedication to female undergraduates through support of the Notre Dame Collegiate Section, developing it into a premier organization in the College of Engineering, and for implementing programs that have dramatically improved the retention of female engineering students.”

A Notre Dame alumna (B.S., AME ’84, and a J.D. ’95), Pieronek returned to the College of Engineering in 2002 in order to establish the women’s engineering program and thus address the low retention rate of women from the first through sophomore years. Her work has led to a 25 percent improvement in the retention rate of female students and a 20 percent increase in the number of admitted engineering women choosing to attend Notre Dame.