Dr. Sindia Rivera-Jiménez
Dr. Rivera-Jiménez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education (EED) at the University of Florida, with affiliations in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Institute of Higher Education in the College of Education. She directs the Engineering Communities & Participatory Change (EcoPaC) Research Group, focusing on propagating and sustaining transformative and effective STEM teaching and learning through institutional practices and involvement in professional society. Her research interests include theory-driven educational design to re-envision learning environments, developing innovative pathways for student transfers and success in four-year institutions, and understanding faculty learning through communities of practice. Through a transformative philosophical framework aimed at broadening the participation of underserved individuals in the engineering workforce, she utilizes multiple theories and mixed methods to understand participant realities and promote policies for change. Dr. Rivera-Jiménez received her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez.
Before joining the University of Florida, she was an Assistant Professor in the Food Science and Technology Program in the College of Agriculture at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, and served as a chemistry faculty member in the Department of Natural Science at Santa Fe Community College. Committed to broader impacts through service, she hosts “The Engineering Professor Speaks Education Podcast,” a bilingual series exploring effective engineering education, and she is the co-founder and Senior Advisor of the LatinX in Chemical Engineering affinity group at AIChE.