Prior to her new role at Purdue University, Dr. Riley was Professor and Interim Head in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. From 2013-2015, she served as Program Director for Engineering Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Riley spent thirteen years as a founding faculty member of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college.
In 2005, she received a NSF CAREER award on implementing and assessing pedagogies of liberation in engineering classrooms.
Riley is the author of two books, Engineering and Social Justice and Engineering Thermodynamics and 21st Century Energy Problems, both published by Morgan and Claypool. Riley served a two-year term as Deputy Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education (2012-2014), rotated through the leadership of the Liberal Education/Engineering and Society (LEES) Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) (2007-2011), and currently serves on the ASEE Diversity Committee. She is the recipient of the 2016 Alfred N. Goldsmith Award from the IEEE Professional Communications Society, the 2012 Sterling Olmsted Award from ASEE, the 2010 Educator of the Year award from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), and the 2006 Benjamin Dasher Award from Frontiers in Education.
Riley earned a B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering and Public Policy. She is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.