Contact: Maridith Geuder
When students enroll in Lesia Crumpton's engineering classes, she offers them a written guarantee.
"I commit to my students that I'll make the classroom interesting and exciting," Crumpton said.
In addition to classroom presentations that are challenging and interesting, she pledges to be fair in assigning grades and being accessible to students-or she'll pay each one $5.
So far, the industrial engineering associate professor hasn't had to spend a dime. Recognized by her students and peers for excellence in the classroom, she's now earning the national spotlight.
In March, Crumpton will receive the National Society of Black Engineers' Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Award. Presentation will be made at the society's Golden Torch Awards ceremony, the premier recognition program for African-American engineers, scientists and technologists.
Mississippi State President Malcolm Portera nominated her for the honor.
A specialist in ergonomics-a science dealing with suiting people to their work and living environments-she directs MSU's Ergonomics and Human Factors Laboratory. She also heads a National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Ergonomics, a partnership between Mississippi State and Texas A&M University.
Crumpton routinely involves her undergraduate and graduate students in her research efforts. Several have won regional and national awards for their work, the latest being Sabrina Williams of Prentiss.
Williams also is receiving a 1999 Golden Torch Award for her achievements as a doctoral student in industrial engineering.
In 1995, Crumpton received a $200,000 Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation to support her research in workplace designs for the disabled. She also holds a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education to explore the use of virtual reality in designing for persons with disabilities.
In 1997, Career Communications Group, publisher of U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine, named her Black Engineer of the Year in Education. The publication described her as "one of the fastest-rising stars in the field of industrial ergonomics."
Crumpton holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Texas A&M, where she was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in engineering.