Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award

The Los Angeles Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE-LA) is excited to announce this year’s Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award! This award was installed four years ago, adding to SWE-LA’s repertoire of available awards and serving as a focused way to support and empower women pursuing careers in academia!

The Society of Women Engineers, founded in 1950, is a non-profit, educational service organization dedicated to supporting women engineers and encouraging young women to consider an engineering education. The LA Section of the Society of Women Engineers, with over 900 members, is one of the largest of the Society’s 400+ sections!

For the fourth year in a row, we are excited to recognize engineering faculty members who have exemplified leadership in their field as well as a dedication to supporting underrepresented groups in STEM! Nominations (self-nominations highly encouraged!) for this year’s SWE-LA Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award can be submitted here, with a deadline of Sunday, March 1st, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.

2026 Submission Deadline

  

All applications are due Sunday, March 1, 2026.

application details

  • Nominee must be a faculty member at one of the eight universities supported by SWE-LA:
    • Cal Poly Pomona
    • Caltech
    • Cal State LA
    • Cal State Northridge
    • Harvey Mudd
    • Loyola Marymount
    • UCLA
    • USC
  • Nominator must submit a curriculum vitae of nominee, demonstrating outstanding leadership in their field and dedication to STEM outreach.
  • Nominator must share a brief description of nominee’s potential to help advance SWE-LA’s growing efforts to support women engineers in graduate school / on the academia track.
  • All genders are eligible to receive this award, but please note that applications will be heavily weighed on the basis of advancing women in engineering.
  • It is highly encouraged that nominee is a SWE member.

Selection for the awardee will be conducted by the SWE-LA Graduate / Academia Committee and approved by the SWE-LA Executive Council. Nominators and the awardee will be notified of the award decision by mid-March.

  • Awardee will receive $1,500 to aid in outreach supplies, conference travels, publication fees, etc.
  • Awardee will be recognized at and receive a complimentary ticket to SWE-LA’s annual Professional Development Conference, valued at $170+! The theme for this year is TBD, and the conference will be held at ASU California Center Broadway, aka the Herald Examiner Building, on Friday, April 24th, 2026.
  • Awardee will serve as a judge for SWE-LA’s third annual Graduate/Academia Research Symposium on March 19th, 2026, which will be held virtually.
  • March 1st, 2026 – applications due
  • March 10th, 2026 – recipients notified
  • March 20th, 2026 – SWE-LA Graduate/Academia Research Symposium
  • April 24th, 2026 – SWE-LA Professional Development Conference

Apply Now!

For any questions about exceptions or questions about the application in general, please feel free to email Jasmine (Graduate/Academia Chair) at graduateacademia.swela@gmail.com!