Cecilia Elmore, director of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been named director of student diversity, outreach and women’s programs.

The new department is a combination of three Missouri S&T departments – student diversity, pre-college programs and the Women’s Leadership Institute. The two former were previously led by Will Perkins, who left Missouri S&T earlier this year. The efforts of all three departments are now combined into one and Elmore is director of the new department.

“I’m excited that someone with Cecilia’s passion for diversity and personal experience as a female engineer has agreed to direct these combined departments,” says Laura Stoll, vice provost and dean of enrollment management at Missouri S&T.

Elmore earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering management with an emphasis on civil engineering from Missouri S&T in 1986. In 2009, she earned a master of education degree in higher education administration and leadership from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

From 1987, Elmore worked for Kemper Insurance in Overland Park, Kan., as a commercial lines underwriter, engineering supervisor and fire protection engineer. In 2001, she came to Missouri S&T as a recruitment coordinator in the former School of Mines and Metallurgy. In 2003, she became coordinator of the university’s new Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program and in 2004 she was named director of the Women’s Leadership Institute. She served as interim director of student diversity programs in 2006.

As an S&T student, Elmore was an athlete and she is a charter member of the Academy of Miner Athletics. Her husband, Curt, also a Missouri S&T graduate, is an associate professor of geological engineering at S&T.