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Honors and Awards

Jessica Schiffman Named ELATES Fellow in National Leadership Program

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Jessica Schiffman
Jessica Schiffman

Jessica Schiffman, professor and Gary R. Lapidus Faculty Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been selected to the 2024-25 class of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) program.

The ELATES program is a national leadership development program designed to promote women in academic STEM fields, and faculty allies of all genders, into institutional leadership roles. The Class of 2024-25 ELATES Fellows is a cohort of 46 faculty members from over 35 institutions of higher education across the U.S. and Canada, which includes experts in engineering, mathematics and science – all of whom have significant administrative experience on top of their scholarly accomplishments.

Schiffman, who is also the inaugural deputy editor of the peer-reviewed journal ACS Applied Engineering Materials, was nominated by senior leadership for the intensive, yearlong ELATES program, which includes 8-10 hours per week of personal and leadership development work as well as three series of on-site work in the Philadelphia area.

“The mission of our laboratory is to use green engineering to design next-generation materials that improve human health and the environment,” Schiffman, an expert in bioinspired and living materials, says of her Schiffman Research Group. “We invent and manufacture a broad range of materials – from fouling-resistant biomedical devices to filters that produce clean water to wearable conductive fabrics.”

Facilitated by leaders in the fields of STEM research and leadership development, the ELATES curriculum is focused on increasing fellows’ personal and professional leadership effectiveness, from the ability to lead and manage change initiatives within institutions, to the use of strategic finance and resource management to enhance organizational missions. Pairing online instruction and discussion with intensive, in-person seminar sessions, the program encourages fellows to apply what they have learned at their home institutions. Ultimately, it aims to create a network of exceptional faculty who bring broad organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to the institutions and society they serve.

More information about ELATES at Drexel can be found at Drexel.edu/ELATES.