The Power of Belonging: Cultivating Leaders Through Community and Collaboration
Sponsored By:
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 5:00-6:30 pm
Engineering careers are rarely linear — and ASME provides a powerful community for learning, collaboration, and leadership development. This session begins with a dynamic panel featuring distinguished leaders who will share how engagement in ASME shaped their growth, impact, and approach to leadership. Following the panel, participants will join roundtable discussions to dive deeper, ask questions, and gain practical advice on mentorship, networking, collaborative problem-solving, and strategies for advancing in technical and leadership roles.
Whether you are exploring your first role or preparing for senior leadership, this program will highlight how ASME participation can cultivate skills, networks, and opportunities to create significant impact. The session concludes with an informal networking reception, offering a chance to continue the conversation, build meaningful connections, and strengthen community ties across career stages.
Program Overview:
- Welcome & Kickoff Message from ASME president
- Panelists Introductions
- Guided Questions & Discussion
- Table Topics/ Interactive Discussions
- Closing Remarks
- Networking Reception
Panel Participants:
Sarvenaz Sobhansarbandi (Panel Moderator) is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Advanced Renewable/Thermal Energy (ART-E) Laboratory at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). Before joining CSUS, she served as an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2017. Dr. Sobhansarbandi’s research focuses on renewable and solar energy systems, computational fluid dynamics, and hybrid numerical modeling, with an emphasis on thermal and energy analysis as well as the design and optimization of advanced thermal management systems. She is an active member of ASME, ASHRAE, and SWE. Within ASME, Dr. Sobhansarbandi serves as an Executive Committee Member of the ASME Power Division (2021–present), Chair of the ASME Power Symposium (2025–2026), Technical Program Chair of ASME 2026 Energy Sustainability Conference, and Chair of the ASME Advanced Energy System Division (AESD) Renewable Energy and Energy Conversion Technical Committee (2025–2026). Dr. Sobhansarbandi has served as the PI on multiple funded projects from the federal and national organizations, such as the US Department of Transportation (DOT). She is also serving as the guest editor of MDPI Journal of Energies, Special Issue: Optimized Thermal Energy Storage Technology Based on Phase Change Material (2024-present), and Recent Advances in Renewable Energy (2022-present).
Judith Ann Bamberger (Panelist) is a Senior Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Judith is an ASME Fellow and Professional Engineer. Her research focus is specializing in slurry mixing, transport, and solids separations. Most recently she has investigated and applied mesofluidics to separation of slurries and deformable particles. Characterizing unsteady mixing she developed and applied unique ultrasonic instrumentation for characterizing slurries and mixing in real time in situ especially for characterizing unsteady pulse-jet mixing system performance. At ASME Dr. Bamberger is past chair of the ASME Fluids Engineering Division 2020-2021 and served on the executive committee through 2024. Currently she is vice chair of the FED Graduate Student Scholar Committee, chair of the Ralph Coats Roe Medal Committee, and past chair of the Henry R. Worthington Pump Medal. She's been active mentoring at ASME in VOLT. On the other side of the organization she’s been a member-at-large for Students & Early Career Development Board, Northwest Region Lead (2019-2022), and District D Leader (2012-2015). She actively publishes and presents at IMECE and FEDSM.
Dr. Assimina (Mina) Pelegri (Panelist) is a professor and the current chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University's School of Engineering. She played a pivotal role in establishing the university's aerospace engineering degree program, significantly contributing to the department's growth and academic excellence. She is also a founder and current director of Rutgers’ Advanced Materials and Structures and Tissue Characterization and Modeling Laboratories. Dr. Pelegri’s research interests include composite materials design, modeling, and characterization, with current research projects spanning super-hard materials' response on ballistic loads to modeling neuron degradation during Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury using hybrid numerical/AI approaches. Dr. Pelegri is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and funding from multiple federal and state agencies. She is a fellow and active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She has served as associate editor of the Journal of the Engineering and Science of Medical Diagnostics and Therapy (JESMDT), Journal of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (JAIAA), and Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology (JEMT). Dr. Pelegri’s dedication to her students has been recognized by Rutgers, where she has been named an Outstanding Faculty of the Rutgers School of Engineering and a Rutgers University Mentor of the Year. She was recognized as an Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni of Georgia Institute of Technology and was awarded the ASME Gold Medal / Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal. She also holds an Amelia Earhart Award from Zonta International, and she is a Fulbright scholar. She earned her Ph.D. and MS degrees in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a MoT degree from its Scheller Business School. She holds an undergraduate degree from Greece’s National Technical University of Athens.