Working with Dr. Kajfez

What you need to know about Dr. Kajfez before joining RIME…

I believe an indestructible plan is as good as done. That is why I constantly ask questions to understand the various perspectives we could use to approach a problem while trying to avoid all the things that could go wrong. I love designing and preparing for research, projects, and events. This approach allows us to execute projects efficiently and balance many projects at once. I expect members of RIME to develop complete and detailed plans, so we succeed across all aspects of our work during their execution.

We always push to make things better and do not stop when things seem good enough. Nothing is ever perfect and can always be improved. I bring a critical eye to all we do trying to elevate our work to the next level. With this elevation, we expand our research’s influence and impact. While this can seem like perfectionism, it really is about enhancement and progress. Improvement also requires flexibility. We might have to change the plan to make it better. RIME members are asked to provide feedback early and often, revising their work to push past the status quo.

I believe actions lead to impact. With this belief, I often focus on tasks and output and have a desire to truly link research, which can be very theoretical, to what we do in practice in our classrooms. For example, when working on papers with collaborators, I want them to send me something (even if it’s really messy) to review so we can act, edit, revise, and submit. I have developed lots of strategies and structures to help my teams focus on action that leads to impact in our work so we can change engineering education. As a member of RIME, you will be asked to take action.

Even with all the planning and action above, there are times we need to drop it all to stand for each other. We are whole people and life happens. In those moments, we must come together and support those in our group, so we all prosper and continue forward. I do this for my teams and expect they will do this for me and each other. This makes RIME a strong community and united front. As a member of RIME, we will fight for you today, tomorrow, and into your engineering education career.

RIME at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference (ASEE). From left to right: Rachel Kajfez, Meagan Ita, Abigail Clark, Renee Design, Cassie Wallwey, Tyler Milburn, and Sherri Youssef.