UA’s College of Engineering promotes Adrienne Gaines to lead new program

The University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering has named Adrienne Gaines the inaugural director of its new Engineering One-Stop, a support program to improve retention and graduation rates.

According to a UA news release, Gaines started the job in November and is working to recruit and hire her team, which will include an assistant director, three academic advisors, senior study abroad advisor and financial aid/scholarship advisor. A student services specialist and academic coaches integrated from the first-year engineering program will round out the team of 12.

She has 14 years of experience as an academic advisor and, most recently, was associate director of student services for the first-year engineering program.

Bryan Hill, associate dean for student success, praised Gaines’ strong record for serving students and collaborating with faculty and staff.

“Adrienne is the perfect inaugural director of Engineering One-Stop as the College of Engineering aims to increase our retention and graduation rates,” Hill said. “Adrienne is highly respected both inside the college and across the university campus in supporting students through innovative programming, data-driven decisions and quality advising.”

Dean Kim Needy said she looks forward to Gaines building out a team to support our engineering and computer science students.

“Adrienne is the right person for this important position, one that will help to fundamentally transform undergraduate student support in the College of Engineering,” she said.

Established through a 2014 gift by the late Robert H. Biggadike, a 1958 mechanical engineering alumnus, Engineering One-Stop will centralize student success initiatives, academic advising, coaching, mentoring, and other services for engineering and computer science students.

Gaines thanked Richard Cassady, director of the first-year engineering program, for his leadership the past 10 years.

“He trusted me to develop programming initiatives to provide both proactive and reactive support for students,” she said. “I am excited to build on the support that we have provided first-year students through our peer mentoring and academic coaching programs to support all students in the college under the leadership of Dr. Bryan Hill.”

More details are available at this link.