The official biography below was current at the time of the award. Awardees may choose to provide their latest biographical information on their profile page.

The work of Charlena Grimes is well above and beyond her position responsibilities as a staff administrator. This mentoring effort truly reaches, recruits, and retains underrepresented groups in engineering. The Bridge program that was developed by Charlena Grimes has documented success and is a primary component of the nomination. The 14-year old program has improved the departmental retention rate by 20 percent. Program documentation reflects that more than 663 underrepresented students have participated in the program; 50 percent earned a degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or are very close to degree attainment) and 75 percent earned some degree from Washington State Universtiy, compared to non-Bridge students who have a 67 percent graduation rate.