Susan Ipri Brown of the Hope College faculty has been elected to the Board of Governors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Ipri Brown is an associate professor of engineering and director of the college’s ExploreHope academic outreach program. She is serving a three-year term on ASME’s board that began on July 1 and will continue through June of 2025.
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges, and has more than 85,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.
Ipri Brown’s ASME service through the years has included at-large membership on the public affairs and outreach council and prior council on education, along with terms as the vice president for government relations and vice president of global outreach. Throughout her membership, she has been selected as a regional winner of the Old Guard Oral Competition, a Leadership Development Intern, a Federal Fellow and a recipient of ASME’s Dedicated Service Award. She is a long-time advocate of programs that enhance diversity, equity and inclusion in the engineering profession.
Ipri Brown has been a member of the Hope engineering faculty since 2013 and director of ExploreHope since 2015.
ExploreHope offers innovative programming for the community, allowing K–12 students and teachers to experience hands-on activities in science, engineering, mathematics and the arts. Summer and afterschool programs — including the popular and nationally accredited summer science camps that began in 1997 — expand learning opportunities that complement in-classroom goals. As director, Ipri Brown manages policy and program development, fundraising, grant writing, and staff and volunteer leadership.
Her work with Hope students includes not only her teaching in the Department of Engineering, but — through ExploreHope — providing pre-professional experience as mentors and session leaders for students interested in teaching science.
Prior to coming to Hope, Ipri Brown was associate director of the Office of STEM Education Partnerships at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she directed teacher professional development programs, grant writing and new program development for outreach with other area organizations. She has also held positions with several North Carolina school districts, Delphi Automotive and the Michigan Legislative Service Bureau. As an ASME Federal Fellow, she worked at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Ipri Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in New Jersey; a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and a secondary teaching certification from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
More information about ASME is available at www.asme.org.