Dominique Rousseau (BS'19), Process Engineer of Life Science Technology Group, Johnson Matthey

Dominique Rousseau graduated from Rowan in 2019. While at Rowan, Dominique did undergraduate research in Dr. Joe Stanzione’s Sustainable Material Research Laboratory for clinic and in the summers. She worked to make bio-based polymers into both gel and solid polymer electrolytes for batteries.

After graduating, Dominique joined Johnson Matthey through their Graduate Rotation Program. For two years, every eight months she rotated to a new position, new site or new sector. She started in their Clean Air business in an operations role. She moved to work in their previous Health sector in EHS. Her final rotation was in a development role in their West Deptford precious metals refinery.

Since leaving the rotational program, Dominique has continued at the refinery as a Process Engineer on the development team for their Life Science Technology group.

Gayle Gibson, Board Director of Carbon Engineering & Partner with Accordant Advisors

Gayle Gibson is a Director on the Board of Carbon Engineering and a Partner with Accordant Advisors. She is a Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and received the Management Division Award in 2018.

Gayle retired from DuPont as the head of Engineering at the end of 2017. During her career in DuPont she held a variety of roles across multiple businesses that included chief of staff for the Chair of the Board and CEO, Growth Champion, product manager, manufacturing manager and R&D engineer. Her contributions spanned revamping innovation practices, product & process development, market development, business strategy, supply chain improvement, process engineering, research & development and diversity & inclusion.

A certified Six Sigma Champion, Gayle holds a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Business Administration from the European University. She serves on the Engineering Advisory Council at Texas A&M University and the Heritage Council of the Science History Institute.

Karen Gleason, Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emerita, MIT

Karen K. Gleason is the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emerita at MIT. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE). Prof. Gleason was previously honored by the AIChE with the 2021 Margaret H. Rousseau Pioneer Award and the 2019 Prausnitz Institute Lecture.

Prof. Gleason’s seminal research on polymers derived from vacuum chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes has resulted in >350 journal articles, 3 books, and >40 U.S. Patents. These CVD methods have led to multiple commercial applications and the founding of two technology companies.

Prof. Gleason joined the MIT faculty in 1987 and became the first woman to receive tenure in the Department of Chemical Engineering. More than 20 of Prof. Gleason’s research advisees hold tenured or tenure-track faculty positions. Ten of these happen to be women. Prof. Gleason has served in a series of leadership positions at MIT, including Associate Provost, Associate Dean of Engineering, Associate Director for the Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies, and Executive Officer of the Chemical Engineering Department.

Her Ph.D. was awarded from the University of California at Berkeley, and her B.S. and M.S. degrees are from MIT, where she also won All-American honors in swimming.

Rahn McKeown is a Chemical Engineering graduate of Rowan University (Class of '02) with over 20 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D. Rahn has spent most of his career at GSK starting as a Process Technology intern in 2001 and over the course of the following 21 years, taking on varied roles at the bench and in leadership to contribute in several key technical functions in pharmaceutical R&D including process Vice President, Product Development engineering supporting synthetic chemistry optimization and scale-up, crystallization and particle engineering, preformulation, novel formulation development, and physical characterization.

Rahn left GSK in 2022 to take on a broader and more influential role at a small pharmaceutical company, Verrica, as the VP of Product Development, and is hoping to help them launch their first medicine in July of this year.

Rahn and his wife Michelle live in Chesterbrook, PA with their two sons and two daughters. In his spare time, Rahn enjoys helping his wife design and build puzzles for her escape room business while continuing to pursue his dream of becoming the national champion of competitive Scrabble!

Dr. Stephanie Farrell is Professor and Founding Head of the Department of Experiential Engineering Education (ExEEd) at Rowan University. She joined Rowan as a founding faculty member of the Chemical Engineering Department in 1998, where she served until launching ExEEd in 2016.

Stephanie is past president of the American Society for Engineering Education and is currently the President of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies. She is a Fellow member of both the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Stephanie leads ASEE’s national research-education-advocacy initiative to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in STEM. Stephanie also leads Rowan’s ADVANCE program for intersectional gender equity in STEM and Rowan’s Revolutionizing Engineering Diversity grant for radical change within Civil and Environmental Engineering, both funded by NSF. She is co-editor of the volume Queering STEM Culture in US Higher Education, published in 2022 by Routledge.

Zenaida Otero Gephardt is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University where she has served as Director and Associate Dean of Engineering. Her research focus is experimental design and analytics.

Zenaida is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a member of its Foundation Board of Trustees. She is past Chair of the Societal Impact Operating Council and chaired the 2015 AIChE Diversity and Inclusion Workshops. She is Past President and current Board Member of the AIChE-Delaware Valley Section and Past Vice President for Accreditation of the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI).

She is the recipient of a 2019 Eminent Engineer Award from the AIChE Minority Affairs Committee. She is the recipient of the 2013 Delaware YWCA Advancement of Women Award and is a member of its Academy of Women Leaders.

Zenaida is a Supervisory Committee member of the DEXSTA Federal Credit Union in Delaware and a Board member of the EgoPo Theater Company in Philadelphia, PA. She is past Chair of the Delaware Girls Inc. Board of Directors and served on the Delaware YWCA Board of Directors.

She holds MS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University.