Mechanical engineering professor and Engineering Design program director Patsy Brackin, PhD, has been recognized with the distinguished Kate Gleason Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Foundation, for her outstanding contributions to the engineering profession.

Brackin received the award 20 during the recent ASME Foundation’s Reinventing the Future 2025 event in Washington, D.C. 

The Gleason Award was established in 2011 by the ASME Foundation to annually honor a female engineer who has had a lifetime of achievement in the engineering profession or is a highly successful entrepreneur in the field of engineering. Kate Gleason was the first woman welcomed into the ASME organization as a full member, paving the way for other women to enter and thrive in the field of engineering.

Brackin, a member of the mechanical engineering Rose-Hulman faculty since 1995, started the Institute’s groundbreaking Engineering Design program in 2018, and led it to achieving accreditation status in 2023 for meeting quality standards from ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission. The program received ABET’s Innovation Award in 2024 for bringing new dimensions to improve students’ technical educational experience. 

Rose-Hulman President Robert A. Coons stated, “The development and growing popularity of our Engineering Design program are testaments to Patsy’s passion for working with students, faculty colleagues, and administrators to ensure that our students have the essential skills to make a difference in their chosen engineering career fields. We are proud that the ASME Foundation has taken notice of Patsy’s dedication to engineering and engineering education by honoring her with this year’s women in engineering career achievement award.”

A licensed professional engineer, Brackin primarily teaches undergraduate courses in design and creativity at Rose-Hulman, has helped mentor thousands of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Design students in design projects throughout their college careers, and formerly led Rose-Hulman’s Operation Catapult summer program for high school students interested in exploring their STEM interests. 

Brackin earned distinction as an ASME Fellow in 2016 and an ABET Fellow in 2020, two of the engineering profession’s highest honors, for her career achievements in undergraduate engineering education. She has led the development and approval of Engineering Accreditation Commission criteria changes, worked with global faculty colleagues on several commission committees, and been an ABET program evaluator, team chair, and member of the Executive Committee. Brackin also has made numerous presentations and workshops for ABET and ASME and their members. 

Brackin earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee and added a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. She worked as a design engineer with the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company and has spent an academic sabbatical leave as a project engineer with Eli Lilly and Company.