Sara Wadia-Fascetti is the Vice Provost for the PhD Network and a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University. As Vice Provost, she provides university-level leadership for PhD education across Northeastern’s global university system. As the academic interface responsible for PhD programs, she works with the deans to deliver quality and distinctive student-centric PhD education across all disciplinary and interdisciplinary PhD programs. She partners with university leaders to create and deliver initiatives that bring distinction to PhD education including global partnerships, cross-cutting interdisciplinary education, and burgeoning Experiential PhD programs.
Prior to joining the Office of the Provost in 2017 Sara served as the College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Development, and the founding Director of Northeastern ADVANCE. These leadership roles, all at Northeastern, resulted in the establishment of longstanding institutional initiatives that promote student experience, diversity, faculty development, experiential learning, graduate education, and research.
Sara’s research is at the intersection of nondestructive sensing technologies and diagnostics of civil infrastructure structural systems. She has led projects resulting in nearly $30M in external resources that support Northeastern research, education, and institutional initiatives. She led the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant resulting in the Northeastern ADVANCE Office for Faculty Development; co-led the VOTERS Civil Infrastructure Assessment Center funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that resulted in the StreetScan start-up company; led the establishment of the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) site for Intelligent Diagnostics for Aging Civil Infrastructure; and served on the Executive Committee for the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS).
Sara received her MS and PhD degrees in Structural Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Civil Engineering with a double major in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been recognized for her teaching, research, and administrative leadership. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Career Development Award, the American Society of Engineering Education Minorities in Education Award, and the American Society of Engineering Education Sharon Keillor Woman in Engineering Education Award. In 2003, she was recognized at the White House with a 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. She has served as a member of the Rochester Institute of Technology ADVANCE Institutional Transformation External Advisory Board and several advisory councils at Carnegie Mellon University. She is founding Co-Chair of the board level Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Structural Engineers Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is a member of the Board of Trustees for Geohazards International, a global nonprofit committed to taking actions before disasters.