Harvey Mudd President Harriet Nembhard Speaks on Innovation, Leadership at UCLA Engineering
From timeless literature to artificial intelligence, Harvey Mudd College President Harriet Nembhard visited the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering on Oct. 9, joining Dean Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park for a fireside chat exploring the ideas shaping innovation and leadership as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture series.
The hourlong conversation took place in front of about 100 students, faculty and staff in William M.W. Mong Memorial Auditorium in Engineering VI. Before the public discussion, Nembhard met separately with a dozen UCLA Samueli student organization leaders, where she shared her thoughts on leadership and learned how students balance their demanding schedules.
“If you’re taking a systems lens and you’re trying to make things better for humans, you don’t know all that you need to know from any one discipline,” Harriet Nembhard said of the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration.
A nationally recognized leader in industrial and systems engineering, Nembhard became president of Harvey Mudd College in July 2023. The liberal arts college, with 900 undergraduate students and 105 faculty members, focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics and is part of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. Under her leadership, the college is implementing STEM for a Better World — a 10-year strategic plan dedicated to preparing students to tackle society’s most pressing challenges through innovative teaching, research and community engagement. Prior to Harvey Mudd, Nembhard served as dean of engineering at the University of Iowa and held leadership roles at Oregon State and Penn State universities. She holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, a B.S. from Arizona State University and M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
In April, at Nembhard’s invitation, Park attended Harvey Mudd’s Innovation Showcase, where student and faculty teams presented project proposals. Park later invited Nembhard to visit UCLA Samueli in return.
Responding to a question from Park on collaborating with colleagues outside STEM disciplines, Nembhard described revisiting her undergraduate copy of Alexis de Tocqueville’s 19th-century two-volume book “Democracy in America.” She told the audience that education should encourage curiosity beyond one’s own discipline.
UCLA Samueli
Dean Alissa Park hosts a fireside chat with Harvey Mudd College President Harriett Nambhard
“If you’re taking a systems lens and you’re trying to make things better for humans, you don’t know all that you need to know from any one discipline,” she said, drawing from her time on the Penn State faculty as an industrial and systems engineer. “[If] we want to improve emergency department access, as a systems engineer I could model that, but I need to hear from the nurses, from the physicians, from the technologists.”
Park recalled her recent conversations with industry leaders on integrating and implementing artificial intelligence into society and asked Nembhard for her perspective.
“There’s an opportunity for some important conversation,” Nembhard said. “We also have to recognize, as engineers, that we have a responsibility to show up in those conversations right now.”
The event, which also included audience questions, covered Nembhard’s journey growing up in Atlanta as the daughter of a pilot and banker, her experiences as a woman of color in STEM and her views on partnerships between academia and industry.
The conversation ended with Nembhard offering parting advice to those in attendance: “Stay curious, stay courageous and stay true.”