National Visiting Committee

Dr. Mary Slowinski is an educator and consultant specializing in technical workforce education and educator professional development. She is PI for Working Partners Project & Workshops, funded by the National Science Foundation, which provides educators with research, resources and training to foster strong partnerships between industry and education to enhance the alignment of educational programs with workforce demand. Dr. Slowinski also served as learning coordinator for three international renewable energy faculty learning projects and has facilitated the development of curricula and course materials across multiple STEM disciplines. Dr. Slowinski received her Ph.D.in Learning Science/Educational Psychology from the University of Washington, Seattle and is an associate professor at Bellevue College in Washington State.

Cheryl Stith has over thirty years of EH&S experience. She has worked across multiple in industries; including manufacturing, academia, health care, and government. Areas of expertise include ER, emergency preparedness, as well as injury prevention and hazardous materials management. She is certified nationally as a CHMM (1992), CIT (2003), ASP (2015) and recently obtained a micro credential in pandemic preparedness.

She is passionate about worker safety and regulatory compliance and works to transition these principles to the next generation of safety professionals. In the future, Cheryl would like to work with underserved and marginalized communities to help encourage EH&S as a career. Outside work, Cheryl enjoys traveling with family, participating in marathons, and enjoying the outdoors.

Dana Brown Haine, MS, is the K-12 Science Education Manager for the Center for Public Engagement with Science, which is housed within the Institute for the Environment at UNC Chapel Hill. She has over 25 years of science education experience, all of which includes engaging adult learners ranging from community college students to K-12 STEM teachers. Her research translation and curriculum development skills enable her to deliver cutting edge environmental science content and innovative activities to K-12 STEM teachers and students as well to informal STEM educators. She has been leading energy-related teacher professional development programming since 2009 and is the founder and director of the NC Energy Literacy Fellows Program, a year-long professional development experience for NC’s secondary STEM educators. As a result of her ongoing work to promote energy literacy among K-12 educators, in 2022 she received a distinguished service award from the North Carolina Science Teachers Association and the Outstanding Informal Educator Award from RePowering Schools. Haine is also pursuing a PhD in STEM Education at NC State University in Raleigh, NC.

Diane Rover is a University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. She serves as the alliance director for the NSF Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska IINSPIRE LSAMP Alliance, is advisory board chair and former co-PI of the NSF Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society led by the University of Missouri, and has co-led projects in the department funded by NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) and Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) programs. Her teaching and research have focused on engineering education, high impact educational practices, inclusive educational practices, broader impacts of research, embedded computer systems, system level design, parallel systems, and performance analysis. Dr. Rover began her academic career at Michigan State University and has served in department and college administrative positions at MSU and ISU. She has engaged with many academic institutions and professional organizations, including community colleges, both U.S. and international universities, and various boards. She has served in various leadership roles within IEEE, ASEE and ABET.  Dr. Rover is a Fellow of the IEEE and of ASEE.

Julie Plummer holds a BA degree in Environmental Biology from Augustana College, and MA degree in
Anthropology/Archaeology from University of Iowa. She is recently retired from the IA Dept. of Natural
Resources’ Iowa Waste Exchange program where she assisted IA business & industry to re-use and
recycle. She is a long-time adjunct faculty member at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges, and was also
Sustainability Manager for that institution. She stays involved in environmental projects through her
business, Riverview Environmental. Julie lives on the shore of (and sometimes in) the Mississippi River,
and enjoys riding her horse, playing clarinet in musical groups, sailing, bicycling, photography, and
volunteering for environmental and sustainability-related organizations.

Kathleen Alfano has a Ph.D. from UCLA in Higher Education with a cognate in administration and evaluation. Her B.S. is in chemistry, and she worked as an analytical chemist in industry before pursuing a career in education. She served as founder and Director of the California Consortium for Engineering Advances in Technological Education (CREATE) based at College of the Canyons from 1996 to 2016. At College of the Canyons, she is a Professor Emeritus and past Dean of Professional Programs and Academic Computing. She currently acts as a co-PI for the CREATE NSF ATE National Energy Center (DUE 2201631) and co-PI of an ATE workshop/mentoring program now in its sixth year (Mentor Up DUE 2032835). Dr. Alfano served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation and co-lead of the ATE program in 2007-2008 and was the only community college representative on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Workforce Trends in the U.S. Energy and Mining Industries which released their report in March 2013.