From classroom to career
On January 29, 2026, ARISE welcomed Dr. Bronwyn Chorlton for a Lighthouse Presentation, From Classroom to Career: Understanding Diverse Experiences and Persistence in Engineering.
Career persistence remains a significant challenge in engineering, particularly for women, who leave the profession at disproportionate rates. Dr. Chorlton explored the factors that shape persistence and attrition using survey data from undergraduate and graduate students, as well as engineers in academia and industry.
The presentation also considered engineers’ first workplace experiences as interns and co-op students, offering insight into how early professional environments shape developing engineers’ experiences.
Speaker bio
View Dr. Chorlton’s University of Calgary profile
Dr. Bronwyn Chorlton, Ph.D., P.Eng., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Her work focuses on two core themes: advancing the fire performance and resilience of structures, particularly mass timber, and improving the lived experiences of engineers across the span of their careers.
Previously, she was a Research Scientist at FPInnovations. She earned her Ph.D. from York University in Toronto, where her dissertation, The Thermomechanical Response of Structural Timber in Real Fire Exposures, examined how timber behaves under realistic, non-prescriptive fire scenarios.
Beyond her structural research, Dr. Chorlton advocates for equity in the engineering profession. Her book, Advancing Women in Engineering, highlights commitments that can help build a more inclusive and sustainable engineering culture.