Dr. Kim LaScola Needy is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and serves as the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas.  She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Wichita State University.  She previously held an academic appointment at the University of Pittsburgh (1993-2008), and served as the Industrial Engineering Department Head (2008-2014) and Dean of the Graduate School and International Education (2014-2020) at the University of Arkansas.  Prior to her academic appointments, she gained industrial experience while working at PPG Industries and The Boeing Company. 

Dean Needy’s research interests include engineering management, engineering economic analysis, sustainable engineering, and integrated resource management.  She has co-authored over 150 papers and is a co-author of Fundamentals of Engineering Economic Analysis, Second Edition by John Wiley & Sons published in 2020.  She has been funded on 39 different research grants from various agencies including the National Science Foundation, Department of Education and Construction Industry Institute. 

She is a Fellow and Past President of both the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) and the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM), a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and a member of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).  Dean Needy is a Past Chair of the University of Arkansas Chancellor’s Commission on Women and on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Graduate Record Examination for Education Testing Service.  She presently serves as the Past-President of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools and serves on the Board of the United Way of Northwest Arkansas.  Dean Needy is a licensed Professional Engineer in Kansas.