She succeeded Dr. George Fair, dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, who had led the UT Dallas office since 2014. Campus Pride named UT Dallas one of the Best of the Best LGBTQ-friendly campuses in the nation for the third consecutive year. “Not just at UT Dallas but nationally, we’ve struggled with diversity,” Pearson said. Her goal is for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to become ubiquitous. She also created and hosts the “Engineering Change” podcast, which focuses on overcoming barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion in engineering education.