Joe Le Doux, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory (BME), has been appointed executive director for learning and training. In this new leadership position, Le Doux is responsible for programs designed to enhance teaching and learning of undergraduate and graduate students, and also for translating the Coulter Department’s innovative teaching methods into formalized training programs for faculty and students.

Le Doux, who has been with the Coulter Department since 1999, is a scholar in the science of engineering pedagogy and he’s made a significant impact, publishing papers and securing grants for improving student education and learning. He was honored (along with BME colleagues Paul Benkeser and Wendy Newstetter) for his work in 2019 with the NAE’s Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education.

He’s held several different leadership role in his years with the BME department at Georgia Tech: associate chair of undergraduate studies (2011-2013), executive director for undergraduate learning and experience (2013-2015), associate chair of undergraduate learning experience (2015-2020). Additionally, Le Doux’s experience in creating and conducting national faculty workshops focused on effective teaching methods makes him the ideal candidate to launch this new BME leadership position.

“My vision is that the Coulter Department becomes the leader in pioneering and operating, at scale, new approaches to engineering education, and that I infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering education and in the engineering workforce,” said Le Doux, who also is a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech.

Ranked last year as the No. 2 graduate and No. 4 undergraduate department for biomedical engineering in the country, the Coulter Department has more than 70 primary faculty, 300 graduate students and 1,150 undergraduate students.

“We are confident that Professor Le Doux has both a visionary perspective of how Coulter BME can serve our academic programs, as well as the practical experience to accomplish our strategic goals of developing and disseminating student and faculty learning methodologies,” said BME Chair Susan Margulies.