Kristen Brown — Distinguished Service Award

Kristen Brown

Kristen Brown
B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering
Graduated from Mountain Pointe High School in the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix

Kristen Brown says her biggest challenge in college has been managing her time and juggling commitments. It’s easy to see why.

Outside of the rigors of being a student in Arizona State University’s Barrett, the Honors College, she helped to lead a growing and very active student organization, and served for three years as a community assistant in freshman engineering campus residential halls and a year as a peer mentor for freshman honor students.

In addition, she participated in the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI) for five semesters, working on ways to increase biodiesel yields from algae and developing new bioreactor systems for harvesting microorganisms and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Outside of school-related activities, Brown kept up with her interests in yoga, Pilates, and painting. She also traveled to Costa Rica for part of one summer and spent most of another summer backpacking through Europe.

Brown’s efforts earned her the Best Community Assistant/Peer Mentor Partnership Award for the 2013-2014 academic year, the Regents High Honors Endorsement Scholarship from the Arizona Board of Regents, a scholarship from the W. L. Gore Company & Associates, and the Greater Phoenix Area Engineers Week Engineering Student of the Year Award for 2014-2015.

The latter award recognizes a student who combines impressive academic achievements with contributions to the engineering profession that demonstrate leadership potential, along with exemplary community service.

She counts as her biggest singular achievement, however, her year as president of the ASU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

During her term, the group won the Most Active Fulton Student Organization award and was recognized at the 2015 Society of Women Engineers national conference as one of the outstanding collegiate chapters in the country.

In that year, the chapter tripled its membership, added 20 new programs to serve its members and improved the group’s largest STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) outreach event, which introduces Girl Scouts to opportunities in engineering.

Overall, the most rewarding aspect of her undergraduate years has been “the friendships and connections I’ve made with fellow students and professors,” she says.

She will have an opportunity to deepen those relationships as she pursues a master’s degree in engineering management at ASU.

As for career aspirations, Brown says she is “open to an any options that provide the opportunity to work with a team or a company fully devoted to developing innovative solutions designed to make our lives better.”