DBASSE Advisory Committee Gets Three New Members

Three new members have been appointed to the 19-strong committee advising the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The division, known as DBASSE, advances social and behavioral sciences and their application through the academies, which the U.S. Congress chartered in 1863 to provide objective scientific counsel for policymakers and the general benefit of society. DBASSE itself is celebrating its 60th birthday.

Working with a full-time staff currently led by Carlotta Arthur, the committee counsels DBASSE, whose work is carried out by standing sub-units, such as the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences; the Board on Human-Systems Integration; and the Committee on National Statistics.

The three new committee members are Dianne Chong, Leah H. Jamieson, and Mary C. Waters. The three also sit on governing councils for two of the constituent academies, Cheong and Jamieson the National Academy of Engineering and Waters the National Academy of Sciences.

Dianne Chong was vice president in The Boeing Co.’s Engineering, Operations & Technology organization, where she managed materials and manufacturing processes and program integration. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and Washington State Academy of Science in 2017. She is a member of the NAE Council, co-chairs EngineerGirl and serves on multiple committees of NAE. Chong is a past president of SME (formerly the Society of Manufacturing Engineers) and a Fellow of SME. She received an award for alumna achievement from the University of Illinois (where she received bachelor’s degrees in biology and psychology) in 2019 and has received numerous technical and diversity awards.

Leah H. Jamieson is Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, professor by courtesy in Purdue’s School of Engineering Education, and John Edwardson Dean Emerita of Engineering. She is co-founder and past director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program, and past president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Jamieson served on National Research Council committees on public understanding of engineering, STEM education, and the impact of COVID-19 on careers of women in academic STEM, and currently chairs the committee for the National Academies Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication.

Mary C. Waters is the John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology and the PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. A sociologist and demographer, her work has focused on the integration of immigrants and their children, immigration policy, disasters and their aftermath, and the measurement and meaning of racial and ethnic identity. Waters is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society (2005), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006) and the National Academy of Sciences (2010). She chaired the NRC Panel on The Integration of Immigrants into American Society (2015).