Center Director

Dr. Megan Leftwich

Dr. Megan C. Leftwich is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The George Washington University.  She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a B.S.E. degree from Duke University.  Prior to joining GW, she was the Agnew National Security Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Lab from 2010 to 2012. Her current research interests include the fluid dynamics of rotating airfoils, high performance jetting for aquatic locomotion, unsteady activation for undulatory propulsion, and the fluid dynamics of human birth.  Prof. Leftwich has a deep interest in diversity in technical fields and STEM education from the first year through the Ph.D.  Professor Leftwich is an Office of Naval Research 2017 Young Investigator Award Recipient.  Additionally, she is the winner of the  2019 Early Career Researcher Award at George Washington University, the 2018 SEAS Dean’s Faculty Recognition Award, the 2017 SEAS Outstanding Young Researcher Award and the 2016 SEAS Outstanding Young Teacher Award.    Her work on unsteady propulsion has been profiled in over 20 popular media venues including: Wired, CNN's Great Big Story, the Smithsonian Magazine and the New York Times.

Dawn Ginnetti

Dawn brings her experiences as a graduate of an all-women's college (Smith College) and a Master's Degree in Higher Education as well as working at a similar center at the University of Maryland. Dawn has been a Professional Student Advisor at GW in SEAS for the past few years and in that role has helped Dr. Heller develop the Unconscious Bias training that was offered to the SEAS faculty and staff.