Professor Grant obtained her degrees in Chemical Engineering from Brown University (Sc.B.) and Georgia Institute of Technology (M.S. and Ph.D.). A Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at NC State for over 31 years, she’s conducted research in surface and interfacial science; advising postdocs and students ranging from the high school to the graduate student level. As the inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty Advancement in the NC State College of Engineering, for over 12 years she’s been responsible for faculty development, special initiatives and promotion and tenure for the college. Grant is currently on an IPA assignment as a Program Director in the Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) Division in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) at NSF. She currently manages the Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program. In addition to her BPE portfolio, she also interfaces with NSF-wide broadening participation initiatives that include: HBCU-EIR, ADVANCE and INCLUDES.

She is the recent President-elect of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a global organization of 60,000+ members in 110 countries. A Life Member of AIChE, SWE, AISES, she’s an AIChE Fellow. From 2004-2005 she was a Boeing Senior Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE). A recipient of the AAAS Mentor Award and the NSF Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM); Grant’s been recognized for broadening the participation, promotion and retention of underrepresented minorities (URM) and women in STEM with awards from the: American Chemical Society, Council for Chemical Research, National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), and WEPAN. She has been a Visiting Senior Scholar at AAAS and a Grant Expert at NSF. A change agent, she has been active as a PI on multiple NSF ADVANCE grants and served on the advisory board or consulted with several ADVANCE schools including Texas A&M, Cornell, Lehigh, U of New Hampshire and the University of Cincinnati promoting institutional transformation in STEM fields. She has been a speaker at numerous NSF AGEP and MRSEC programs. She’s received over $5 million in NSF funding in the REU, ADVANCE, CBET, and GOALI programs. In the BPE realm, she has co-edited the book, “Success Strategies from Women in STEM: A Portable Mentor” by Elsevier/Academic Press and contributed chapters to “Growing Diverse STEM Communities: Methodologies, Impact and Evidence” (2019) and “Overcoming Barriers for Women of Color in STEM Fields” (2020).