Leda Lunardi has been a professor since 2003 at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. She holds a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University. Her research areas are in fabrication and modeling of electronic and optoelectronic devices, and microelectromechanical devices.  Before joining academia, she spent several years doing R&D at AT&T, and a stint at the now defunct JDS Uniphase. From 2005 to 2007 she served as Program Director for the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division in the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, VA. She was the Director of Graduate Programs of the ECE Department in 2007, before joining the leadership team of NSF-ERC Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center as the Education and Diversity Director from 2008-2011. In addition to her research, Dr. Lunardi has managed several NSF grants for STEM research and education to encourage women and underrepresented minority students to graduate in engineering and science and pursue graduate degrees. She has been a lifelong technical volunteer for IEEE with leadership roles in executive and technical committees, conferences, and journals. She has served in national and international governments’ ad-hoc committees for grants and projects reviews. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications and conference proceedings, been granted 5 patents, one book, and given invited talks, plenary addresses, and short courses at conferences. She is an IEEEE Fellow and co-shared the IEEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award.