Our Featured Fellow for January 2023 is Taylor Lightner, who received her Master of Engineering in Management Systems from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech this past fall! She is anticipated to graduate with her Ph.D. in Engineering Education in Spring 2023.

Taylor Lightner joined the Bill Anderson Fund as a Fellow in 2021 and participated on the BAF Student Council’ as a member of the Writing Committee. For the 2022-2023 academic year is serving as the Co-Chair of the Council’s Culture Committee. At Virginia Tech, she serves as the Graduate Coordinator Assistant for Disaster Resilience and Risk Management (DRRM), where she co-creates curriculum for graduate students from various education backgrounds that focus on transdisciplinary topics such as interdisciplinary collaborations, community engineering, and resilience.

Her dissertation, entitled A Multiple Case Narrative Analysis of Sociopolitical Development: Exploring the Journeys of Black Engineers Engaged in Disaster Management, focuses on Black engineers’ pathways to careers that rectify societal inequities. Her dissertation merges methods from narrative research and multiple case study research. The study explores the manifestation of pathways through sociopolitical development (SPD), also known as critical consciousness development, among engineers engaged in disaster management-related work. Utilizing a multiple-case narrative approach, her dissertation documents the career journey narratives of Black engineers motivated to address social inequities through their engineering work and analyzes the journey of SPD along the career journey narratives.  The findings of Taylor’s research will provide insight into how engineering stakeholders influence the cultural values underlying the nature of engineering work throughout the multiple settings of Black engineers’ career development. Additionally, it will contribute to academic conversations related to the cultural context surrounding engineering development, the boundaries of engineering work, and the development of underrepresented engineers. 

Overall, Taylor’s background in Industrial Systems Engineering drives her passion for system dynamics surrounding broadening participation in engineering work beyond academia. She has interned with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and National Science Foundation (NSF). As an intern in both organizations, she gained a unique perspective on how research skills can be applied outside of an academic context and the impact of stakeholder decisions on engagement. Her interest in systems thinking has allowed her to understand that the disparities in STEM education for minorities are influenced by historical marginalization that has significantly impacted the trajectories of minorities through STEM preparation, training, and careers. In a public-inspired science talk, Taylor described her evolving trajectory to disaster management. 

You can find Taylor’s selected publications below. Consider connecting with her on LinkedIn.

1. Lightner, T., London, J. (2022) Black Lives Matter: A content analysis of engineering institutions’ responses to social-political activism. Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity.
2. Lightner, T., Roy, S., London, J. & Edwards, M. (2021, July). “Racing the sun”: A narrative analysis of engineering graduate students’ journeys navigating public-inspired science work. American Society for Engineering Education.
3. Lightner, T., Huggins, N., Cardella, M., Lee, W., Knight, D. & Hampton, C. (2020). Draw an Engineer: A Critical Examination of Efforts to Shift How Elementary-Aged Students Perceive Engineers. Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity.