Ann F. McKenna is an expert in engineering education systems and educational leadership. Her research focuses on entrepreneurial thinking in the context of engineering faculty mentorship and curricular innovations, design teaching and learning, the role of adaptive expertise in design and innovation, and more recently inclusivity in higher education engineering structures, culture and policies.

McKenna is the Vice Dean of Strategic Advancement for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and professor of engineering in the Polytechnic School, one of the six Fulton Schools.

Prior to joining ASU, she served as a program director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education, and was the director of education improvement in the McCormick school of engineering at Northwestern University.