NYIT Dean Is Among "100 Inspiring Women in STEM Award" Winners

Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., the first female dean of NYIT's School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, has been selected to receive a "100 Inspiring Women in STEM Award" from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

This award is presented as a tribute to 100 women across the nation whose work and achievements encourage others in their individual STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and math—and also motivate a new generation of young women to consider careers in these much-needed areas. The winners will be profiled in the magazine's September 2015 issue. INSIGHT Into Diversity is the oldest and largest diversity magazine and website in higher education.

Long an advocate for women pursuing education and career opportunities in STEM fields, Anid is also an active proponent of K-12 education that encourages girls to experience the thrill of discovery and design. She has spearheaded a number of initiatives to inspire and engage young women and is widely recognized for her commitment to empowering women in STEM fields.

At the college level, she has partnered with corporations and foundations to offer NYIT scholarships for women in engineering and computing sciences and facilitated professional mentorship for female students in these fields. To create a pipeline for prospective students, she has developed programming for middle and high school girls in conjunction with Girls Inc. and Girl Scouts. As a cornerstone of NYIT's celebration of National Engineers Week in February, she launched "High School Showcase" and “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” events at the university’s Old Westbury and Manhattan campuses.

“My mission in life has always been to inspire women to embrace and pursue STEM-related studies and careers,” said Anid. “I am humbled by this award.”  

In recognition of her business acumen, Anid was inducted into the “Most Influential Women in Business” Hall of Fame in 2013 by Long Island Business News, and named one of the Top 25 individuals to receive the first-ever Advocates for Science and Technology Award by the Science Museum of Long Island, N.Y. She is an active member of the Engineering Deans Council STEM Committee of the American Society for Engineering Education, the Long Island Regional Council’s Education and Workforce Committee, and the New York State STEM Education Collaborative.

Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, noted that these remarkable women continue to make a significant difference through mentoring and teaching, research, and other efforts worthy of national recognition. 

At NYIT, Anid oversees 80 engineering and computing sciences faculty members and nearly 3,500 graduate and undergraduate students at campuses in New York, Canada, China, and the Middle East. Prior to joining NYIT in 2009, she was the chair and graduate program director of the Chemical Engineering Department at Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y. She has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.