Gaines Named Inaugural Director of Newly Created Engineering One-Stop

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Adrienne Gaines

A proven campus leader with 14 years of success in academic advising has been named inaugural director of the College of Engineering's new Engineering One-Stop, which aims to improve retention and graduation rates by providing intensive, robust support to all undergraduate students.

Adrienne Gaines, who most recently served as associate director of student services for the First-Year Engineering Program, began her new duties on Nov. 16.

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 extended thanks to 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."

Gaines has begun work recruiting and hiring her team, which will include an assistant director, three academic advisers, a senior study abroad adviser and a financial aid/scholarship adviser. A student services specialist and academic coaches integrated from the First-Year Engineering Program will round out the team of 12.

Since October 2012, Gaines has led the Student Services team that provides proactive support for all new freshmen entering the College of Engineering. The Peer Mentoring Program is a major component to help students transition successfully from high school into the College of Engineering.

Gaines serves as the advising director for the College of Engineering on campuswide Academic Advising Council. She currently leads all academic advising activities for the 800-plus first-year engineering students, including coordinating new student orientation. Gaines advocated to create the first college-specific academic coaching program in Spring 2019. It has expanded to two full-time staff and two graduate assistants.

Hill, associate dean for student success, praised Gaines' strong record for not only serving students, but also 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.

Gaines has previously served on the Remote Teaching in the Future Task Force, Academic Standards Committee and the U of A Reaccreditation Steering Committee. For five years she was the campus coordinator for advising and retention tools.

She spearheaded the planning, training and implementation to move from AdvisorTrac tool used only by academic advisers to Starfish Retention Solutions, known as UASuccess, for the entire campus. Gaines currently serves on the Workday Student Steering Committee.

Gaines has a Bachelor of Arts in management information systems from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master of Education in workforce development education from the U of A.