Director, General Engineering Program
Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

Dr. Lizabeth Thompson is the Director of General Engineering and a professor in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, SLO, a MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering and an MBA from University of Southern California, and a PhD in Education from University of California, Santa Barbara.

She has been at Cal Poly for nearly 30 years and has held various positions on campus including Acting Department Chair of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Co-Director of Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies, Director of Women’s Engineering Programs, and CENG Interim Associate Dean. Although she has taught over 25 different courses, she currently teaches Financial Decision making, First Year engineering, Senior Project, and Change Management.

Her research is in Engineering Education where she has received $11.9 million of funding from NSF as either PI or Co-PI. She researches equitable classroom practices, integrated learning, and institutional change. She spent the 2019-2020 academic year at Cal State LA where she taught and collaborated on research related to equity and social justice.

With her colleagues at Cal State LA, she received an NSF grant called Eco-STEM which aims to transform STEM education using an asset-based ecosystem model. She is also a Co-PI on an NSF S-STEM grant called ENGAGE which is working to make a more robust transfer pathway for local community college students. Dr. Thompson is a Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE grant called KIND with other universities within the CSU, and recently received a prestigious NSF RED grant with her colleagues in the Computer Engineering Department at Cal Poly. She is also working with a team on Cal Poly students on an NSF ICorps grant to develop a Menstrual Cup. She is a co-advisor to Engineers without Borders, Critical Global Engagement, and oSTEM (out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) at Cal Poly.