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Jenna Carpenter

Jenna P. Carpenter is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, and Wayne and Juanita Spinks Professor, in the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University. Carpenter grew up in Hope, Arkansas, and received her B.S. in Mathematics from Louisiana Tech University. She was an Alumni Federation Fellow at Louisiana State University, where she received her Ph.D. in Mathematics, under the direction of Robert Perlis. Her work focused on quadratic forms over number fields. She has been on the faculty at Louisiana Tech since 1989, where she spent ten years as an engineering department head and is now in her sixth year as associate dean.

Carpenter’s professional interests include innovative STEM curricula and improving the success of women in STEM fields, for which she has received over $3 million in federal funding. She is currently the principle investigator of an NSF ADVANCE grant, where she leads programs such as faculty mentoring and professional development. She most recently co-authored the MAA Notes Volume “Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences,” with Glenn Ledder and Timothy Comar.

Carpenter has served on a number of MAA committees, including the 2014 CUPM Curriculum Guide Steering Committee, CRAFTY, the Committee on Consultants, and the Committee on Professional Development. She was the Louisiana-Mississippi Section Governor from 2010 – 2013 and the recipient of the Section Teaching Award in 2004. She is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and was invited in 2011 to participate in a meeting at the White House focused on women and girls in STEM fields.

Outside of work, Carpenter enjoys traveling and is a huge fan of her two children, Trey and Emma, both of whom inherited her fondness for STEM fields. Her husband is a consulting engineer and mayor of the small community where they live.