IDEA Institute Staff
Interim Director S. Lance Cooper
Lance Cooper serves as the interim director of IDEA and professor in the Department of Physics. He has been instrumental in advancing opportunity and strengthening the engineering community at The Grainger College of Engineering. While serving as associate head for Graduate Programs in physics since 2011, he has significantly expanded participation in the physics PhD program.
Dr. Cooper is the site leader for the Illinois Physics Bridge-to-PhD Partnership Program run by the American Physical Society and serves on the campus' DRIVE committee focused on enhancing faculty talent pipelines across campus.
As co-PI on the Illinois Sloan University Center for Exemplary Mentoring – a 9-year program expanding STEM pathways by connecting 151 PhD students from diverse backgrounds to 17 STEM departments on campus – Dr. Cooper has demonstrated his commitment to engineering excellence. He also co-led the NSF-sponsored Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) program that pioneered innovative approaches to holistic admissions in physics PhD programs.
Associate Director Ashleigh R. Wright
Ashleigh Wright serves as associate director of IDEA and assistant teaching professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She collaborates with college and departmental leaders to identify priorities, develop evidence-based strategies and measure progress quantitatively against key metrics that expand opportunity and access for undergraduate and graduate student communities.
Dr. Wright conducts research analyzing innovation pathways, success factors and proven methodologies to create engineering environments where problem-solvers with diverse perspectives excel. She is a member of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) and is the affiliate advisor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign NOBCChE Student Chapter.
Before joining the university, Dr. Wright managed numerous training and pathway programs that expanded access to STEM, and facilitated workshops enhancing the academic, personal and professional development of students at North Carolina State University and Louisiana State University. She holds degrees in chemistry from Wofford College (BS), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (MS) and Louisiana State University (PhD).
Student Interns
Megan Kerni, Computer Science, BS
Akshina Sood, Information Management, MS