Dr. Kristi Shryock to lead Engineering Honors

Dr. Kristi Shryock has been named director of the Texas A&M University College of Engineering’s Craig and Galen Brown Engineering Honors Program. She currently serves as associate department head and associate professor of instruction in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and will continue in these roles.

The Aggie engineer has served the university for 21 years, first as an undergraduate student researcher and currently as a faculty member in aerospace engineering. Shryock received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the College of Engineering at Texas A&M.  

“I am so honored to be working with such an impressive group of high-caliber leaders in engineering,” Shryock said.

She is taking over the leadership of the program following Dr. Nancy Amato’s move to serve as department head of computer science and an Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“We are grateful to Dr. Amato for her years of service and her dedication to expanding the opportunities our brightest students have at their disposal,” said Dr. Mark Weichold, Regents Professor and senior associate dean for academic affairs. “Under her tenure, the Engineering Honors program has expanded dramatically, and I look forward to seeing its further growth under Dr. Shryock’s capable leadership.”

Shryock said she’s looking forward to following Amato’s lead as the program continues to develop and grow. There are currently more than 1,700 students in the Engineering Honors program.

“The program has grown by leaps and bounds the last several years, and I look forward to continuing this expansion, and introducing new opportunities for exploration and enhancement,” Shryock said.

Shryock helped establish one of the first departmental honors programs within the College of Engineering and is also a member of the honors faculty at Texas A&M. She is regularly invited to present her work related to teaching and the engineering education field at national and international events. She served as lead author on a paper at the 2011 Frontiers in Education Conference that won the highly coveted Benjamin Dasher Best Paper Award, and also received the Instructional Faculty Teaching Award in 2015 and 2018 from the College of Engineering.

She frequently supervises undergraduate and graduate students on projects related to engineering education, including active learning, personalized learning modules, enhanced understanding using interactive documents, team-based learning and teaching with technology. She also leads several educational National Science Foundation grants and serves as an advisor for two student organizations.

“My passion has always revolved around helping students succeed,” she said. “Our students are amazing, and I look forward to continuing to provide them with opportunities to help prepare them to truly change the world.”