Despite her teaching, research, and commercialization workloads, Minerick has continued her commitment to addressing barriers and inequities that keep far too many students—young women, racial minorities, first-generation college students, and members of the LGBTQ+ community—from succeeding in engineering. “I figure my role is to be really good at what I do to personally challenge barriers,” she says, “then use positions of influence to lift up others experiencing disadvantages, and directly challenge the systems that endorse or fail to address inequities.”

The ASEE President has conducted Safe Zone workshops for faculty who want to become better LGBTQ+ allies, led what’s now the Society’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and served as PI on two grants from NSF’s ADVANCE program to improve gender equity in STEM fields. She believes that all this work is essential. “I look back in history and recognize how much talent and brainpower was wasted,” she laments. “Our present society, technology, and health of the planet could be so much better balanced if a majority of intellect hadn’t been squelched by labels and systems of worthy/unworthy designations.”