Heather Beem

Heather Beem is joining the School of Integrated Engineering, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, as an associate teaching professor of engineering science.

She brings expertise in hands-on learning and engineering education from her work as a senior lecturer at Ashesi University in Ghana. She says she was drawn to ASU’s ambitious approach to undergraduate engineering education, particularly its emphasis on creating meaningful learning experiences for students. Joining a relatively new school also gives Beem a chance to contribute to its evolving approach to interdisciplinary engineering education.

“The opportunity to be a part of shaping this new program piqued my interest,” Beem says. “There is a resonance between the School of Integrated Engineering and the entrepreneurial experiences I’ve cultivated in my education throughout the last decade.”

She knew she was on the right track during graduate school, surrounded by people who were eager to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems and confident in their ability to help develop solutions.

“I found myself drawn into this ethos and desiring to understand what enabled such an environment to exist,” Beem says. “I realized that a large part of it was the celebration of hands-on learning, the testing of ideas in tangible form, and systematically building them out. Since then I have been captivated with promoting hands-on learning in various forms.”

After graduate school at MIT, Beem moved to Ghana, where she established the STEM education nonprofit Practical Education Network, whose mission is to enable every African child to learn by doing. The organization has trained more than 10,000 teachers.

Beem is eager to unpack the contextual impacts of hands-on learning. She hopes her students come to love engineering and see themselves as agents of change. She looks forward to building a foundation for everyone to succeed by expanding opportunities for students through high-quality, personalized engineering education.

“I love getting to see young people go off in their own respective directions and do meaningful things in the world beyond what I can envision,” Beem says. “I am motivated by approaches and efforts that unlock the inherent potential of those who tend to be the least reached.”

Written by Hannah Weisman