Adrienne Decker accepted into executive leadership program

By Elizabeth Egan 

The program aims to promote senior female faculty, and faculty allies of all genders, in leadership positions for academic engineering, computer science and other STEM fields, in order to increase the representation of women in STEM. 

“DEE is so proud of Adrienne for her acceptance into such a prestigious program,” said James Jenson, professor and chair of the Department of Engineering Education. “It speaks volumes about Adrienne as a leader, scholar, and teacher and about her potential for future leadership at UB.”

The year-long, part-time, fellowship is a national leadership development program that provides training and development for faculty and administrators. Fellows will learn to improve their personal and professional leadership through professional and peer coaching, learn to understand and navigate organizational dynamics through activities, presentations and interviews of their own institutional leaders and expand their knowledge of finance and resource management. The curriculum includes classroom lessons, online trainings and on-the-job application at the fellow’s home institution.

“When I decided that academic leadership was something I wanted to pursue, I felt that it was important for me to set on a path to learn about what that meant,” said Decker. “I wanted to learn more about the parts of academic leadership and the ways in which my current knowledge of leadership can be applied and augmented in these new roles.”

She continued, “I feel that the ELATES program will allow me to do all these things while also allowing me access to parts of the administrative process that can be harder to see and study. I look forward to having the opportunity to talk with various members of the university administration, to learn from them, and showcase the talents and skills I bring to the table.”

Decker is a senior member of the Association of Computing Machinery. Her main research area is computing education, with a primary focus on improving the  student experience in computing courses and degree programs.

In 2019, Decker came to the University at Buffalo as an assistant professor. She earned her PhD, master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in computer science at UB.