Lois Trautvetter

Lois Calian Trautvetter is Program Director of the Higher Education Administration and Policy Program (MSHE) and a Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. Northwestern University’s MSHE program prepares dynamic, reflective leaders for colleges and universities, governmental agencies, and consulting firms in postsecondary education.

Over the past twenty years, Lois has been an administrator, faculty member, and researcher. Her research interests focus on undergraduate and graduate students, post-doc fellows, and faculty in STEM, especially for engineering, astrophysics, and other data science disciplines. Studies include factors and best practices supporting recruitment and retention of women and BIPOC students and faculty, mentoring, collegiality, work expectations, professional and personal stressors, career development, and professional development issues such as productivity, enhancing teaching and research, interdisciplinary collaboration, motivation, and faculty-student interaction.

Trautvetter has received multiple grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), Simon Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, and the Lilly Endowment Inc. She has written Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully, and many book chapters and journal articles on faculty, students, and improving undergraduate and graduate education. Before Northwestern, Trautvetter was a former chemical engineer holding patents in the coating and resins industry.