Angela Birkes

Angela Birkes, director of broadening participation in STEM in the University of Georgia’s Office of Institutional Diversity (OID), recently joined the UGA College of Engineering as assistant dean of graduate outreach and partnerships. Birkes will split her time between the Office of Institutional Diversity and the College of Engineering.

As the new assistant dean of graduate outreach and partnerships at the College of Engineering, Birkes builds partnerships and engages with national organizations and academic institutions to expand participation and size of the engineering graduate program across all disciplines. She strategically collaborates with internal and external offices and organizations to create professional development opportunities for graduate students, as well as structured programs engaging doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars to broaden participation and increase the diversity of applicant pools for the college.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Birkes join us in the college,” said College of Engineering Dean Don Leo. “Her engineering background combined with her successful career in the Office of Institutional Diversity makes her a great fit for this role and we are excited for her to make an impact in the College of Engineering.”

Birkes joined UGA in 2010 as the alliance director for the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (Peach State LSAMP) program in the OID, which she continues to direct in her role as director of broadening participation in STEM.  The Peach State LSAMP is a collaborative effort sustained by a coalition of six public colleges and universities in Georgia to significantly increase the number of underrepresented students statewide who complete undergraduate and advanced degrees, as well as have thriving careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As alliance director, Birkes manages alliance-wide activities, establishes alliance-wide relationships, provides fiscal management, chairs the steering committee, supports member institutions with program implementation, and leads strategic planning for Peach State LSAMP.

She also serves as co-principal investigator (Co-PI) for the UGA Engineering Science, Technology, EnginEering and Math Educational Diversity (ESTEEMED) program, an NIH-funded opportunity for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups who are interested in seeing firsthand how their major contributes to biomedicine and exploring potential careers paths.

Birkes holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Howard University, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

By Lillian Ballance