Chancellor's Award for Advancing Equity

Praveen Sekhar has devoted his career and his life to ensuring that access and opportunity are recognized, celebrated and advanced on campus and beyond. His commitment to diversity pervades everything he does as teacher, scholar, research scientist, board and committee member and mentor. Unfailingly respectful and kind, he is also persuasive and influential. As one nominator said, “He clearly views diversity—whether in a person or an institution—as an asset rather than a deficit.”

Sekhar embeds community engagement into his engineering courses, identifying organizations to partner with to give his students hands-on experience with community-driven projects and goals that match the course objectives. Among others, his students have introduced STEM to fourth graders in a local school district, helped train staff of a child-focused nonprofit in office software, and developed tracking and locating systems for a food bank. He seeks partnerships with nonprofits that support underrepresented groups in STEM education and chooses collaborators that themselves promote access and opportunity.

In his research and academic writing, Sekhar collaborates with and mentors a wide variety of scholars. He has secured external funding to broaden participation in engineering and ensure opportunities for all students at WSU Vancouver. He has dedicated himself to empowering students as a teacher and mentor. Through two research projects, Sekhar is working with the Dine/Navajo Nation to address food security challenges and food safety. Integral to the projects are workforce development and training of tribal students in the frontiers of technology. He is active in the campus-wide Learn, Explore, Achieve and Promote program, developing a mentoring relationship with a variety of students.

Sekhar stresses the importance of outreach to make sure more students can access and pursue STEM degrees and create a knowledgeable workforce that can replace our currently aging workforce. He is an executive board member of iUrbanTeen, a national organization that encourages underrepresented middle and high school students to pursue STEM careers. He has partnered with the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families to bring foster care students to WSU Vancouver via focused STEM events.

Sekhar is a 2023 recipient of WSU’s MLK Spirit Award, which recognizes those who work toward creating a society built on justice, equality and mutual respect. He has received three of WSU Vancouver’s highest honors: the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity and the Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence this year, and the Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence in 2024.