In celebration of her dedication and hard work over the past year, Dr. Nina L. Robinson , Administrative Director of the School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE) was awarded the Bravo+ Award. This year’s award is Dr. Robinson’s third Bravo+ honor.

Purdue University’s Bravo Award Program recognizes staff who have made significant contributions “in moving Purdue forward, operational excellence, innovation/creativity, or fiscal stewardship.” The program celebrates innovation and dedicated efforts to propel the university to new heights of success.

As a general guideline, Bravo Awards are awarded for “extraordinary performance which produces a measurable outcome.” With this third honor in the program to date, it is clear that Dr. Robinson’s work is consistently exceptional.

Dr. Robinson’s professional background in data management, biotechnology, and software industries has laid the foundation for her work with SEE.  

“When I got my PhD, I initially wanted to go into research, but that is a difficult career when you are a two-career family.  So, I found out about a bioinformatics software company that was hiring user support staff.  Since my background was in science, it was a good fit for me.  I worked my way up in the company and became a software project manager…I eventually ended up at Purdue, and was later hired as the Administrative Director of EEE in 2013.  My tenure in EEE started at the same time that the first 10 students graduated with their BS EEE.”

When asked why this award is important to her, Dr. Robinson shared,

“Because the work that I do, in this case related to ABET accreditation, is recognized.”

This response is the heart of Dr. Robinson’s efforts with Purdue. As an Administrative Director of SEE , Dr. Robinson has the ability to work on special projects, such as the ABET accreditation and helping to establish the graduate program.

“My biggest involvement is in writing portions of the self-study, which is a little over 300 pages,” said Dr. Robinson.  

“I work on the more administrative side of things, student support organizations, faculty recruitment and retention, and history of the academic unit.  This year marks the third year I have been involved with ABET accreditation. I worked on the curriculum, which normally is done by a faculty member.  I worked with Tammi Thayer to input the curriculum for the BS EEE.  In addition, there are appendices that contain syllabi and the faculty CV.  My job is to get these materials and reformat if needed into ABET format.”

Completing preparations for the self-study to go to ABET was one of the most rewarding parts for Dr. Robinson. 

“This is something you work on for over 6 months, and it is great to finally get it out.”

It is clear that Dr. Robinson’s efforts enable Purdue’s School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering to repeatedly grow, and that her work should soon be honored once again with synonymous consistency.

For more information about Purdue’s School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering, please visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/SEE