University of Cincinnati

Whitney Gaskins, Ph.D. Empowerment Enthusiast and Engineer. Assistant Dean at the University of Cincinnati, College of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Gaskins is the Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement in the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science, the only African-American female currently teaching in the faculty of the College of Engineering. Whitney earned her Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering, her Master of Business Administration in quantitative analysis and her Doctorate of Philosophy in biomedical engineering/engineering education. In 2009, she founded The Gaskins Foundation, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to educate and empower the African American community. Her foundation recently launched the Cincinnati STEMulates year round K-12 program, which is a free of charge program that will introduce more students to Math and Science. She was named the 2017 K12 Champion by the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA).

Nandita Baxi Sheth has an B.A. from Rice University with majors in Architectural Studies, Art, and English. She has a Master of Community Planning and Master of Visual Arts Education from DAAP and is currently a doctoral candidate with the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA). She has worked as an architect, planner, art educator, and is a practicing artist. She has worked on programming in art and design for local High School students. Currently, she is co-director of the Strange Tools Research Lab, which is part of UC’s Digital Futures Initiative. She teaches courses in the Art Education program in the School of Art and she co-leads the Biodesign Challenge program which includes the Honors course Sticky Innovation.