Caroline Baillie, PhD

Professor, Integrated Engineering and Academic Director of MESH

• PhD, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey
  
• MHEd, University New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  
• BSc, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey
  
• PGCE Elementary, University of Sunderland, UK
  
• Forest School Leader Level 3, Nature Workshops, UK

Caroline Baillie, PhD joined USD in 2017. She teaches and researches in her area of expertise - engineering and social justice. Baillie is also academic director of the new Master’s program in Engineering, Sustainability and Health (MESH). Dr. Baillie was awarded the prestigious University Professorship — the highest academic honor bestowed university-wide in the fall of 2025 . Prior to coming to USD, Dr. Baillie served as chair and professor of Engineering Education at UWA, Perth and held appointments at the University of Sydney, Imperial College, UK and Queens University, Canada.

Dr. Baillie is a materials engineer, with expertise in engineering education and critical social studies as well as leading many local and international community development programs. She is particularly interested in ways in which engineers can work with other professionals and local community groups, to co-create solutions for the environment as well as social problems.

In addition to her technical and educational background, Dr. Baillie is a trained Forest School leader, mediator and therapist and she brings this expertise to her research and development work as well as her teaching. She conducts both theoretical and educational studies related to engineering and community engagement and in 2006 founded Waste for Life (wasteforlife.org) to enable community groups to develop recycling waste businesses. Dr. Baillie also co-founded the Engineering, Social Justice and Peace network (esjp.org) in 2004, which hosted its annual conference at USD in 2018. 

She is a Thomson Reuters Highly cited author, with over 200 publications, papers and books on materials science, engineering education and engineering and social justice. In addition to her academic work, Dr. Baillie runs a theatre company entitled Critical Stage (www.criticalstage.co.uk) through which she adopts theatre and film as a platform for education around intangible social issues, including those related to technical development.

Areas of Expertise

Scholarly Work

• With Eric Feinblatt, "Waste is an imbalance of our system. Let us transform it instead.." River Reporter, , 2025, p. 10.
• "Earth in Crisis: A call for a new engineering ethic (Series Editor)" in Synthesis Lectures by Catalano, G.. Editor: Baillie, C., 2024.
• With Dowling, D., Hadgraft, R., Carew, A., McCarthy, T., Hargreaves, D., and Male, S., Engineering your future: An Australasian Guide (Revised Edition). Washington, DC: Westphalia Press, 2024.
• "Engineers, Technology and Society" in Synthesis Lectures (Series Editor). Editor: Baillie, C., New York, NY: Springer, 2024.
• With Kadetz, P., "Epilogue" in Reimagining Engineering Education: Health. Justice. Sustainability. (Springer series) Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives. Editors: Baillie, C. and Kadetz, P., New York, NY: Springer, 2024.
• "ESJP Through 20 years of development," ESJP Annual conference, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2024.
• Reimagining Engineering Education: Health. Justice. Sustainability. (Springer series - Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives). Editors: Baillie, C. and Kadetz, P, New York, NY: Springer, 2024.
• "Transdisciplinarity and Sustainability in Engineering Education," Australian Association Engineering Education Annual Conference, University of Canterbury, Christchurch New Zea, New Zealand, 2024.
• "Transdisciplinarity in action: MESH MS in Engineering, Sustainability and Health" in Reimagining Engineering Education: Health. Justice. Sustainability (Springer series) Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives.. Editors: Baillie, C. and Katedtz, P., New York, NY: Springer, 2024.
• With Acero, A and Ramirez-Cajiao, MC , "Understanding community engagement from practice: a phenomenographic approach to engineering projects," Frontiers in Education, 2024.

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Office Hours

• GENG 350