Tonya Nilsson is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Santa Clara University. Previously, she was on the faculty at California State University, Chico where she was a tenured Associate Professor. Dr. Nilsson has her Professional License and has worked in industry on structural engineering projects. She received her Bachelors in Architectural Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1991, her Masters in Structural Engineering from Stanford University in 1993, and her Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics from University of California at Davis in 2002. Her Ph.D. research focused on the development of new material properties to model crack propagation on ductile materials. Dr. Nilsson has a strong interest in engineering education and worked for eight years with ASCE's ExCEED Teaching Workshops to train other engineering faculty on effective teaching methods and served for four years on the national ASCE, Committee on Faculty Development. She is also a member of School of Engineering's NSF "Engage" team.