Sherra Kerns

Sherra E. Kerns (née Horan) is an American physicist, engineering educator, and academic administrator who is the F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor Emerita of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the founding vice president for innovation and research at Olin College. She was president of the American Society for Engineering Education from 2004 to 2005.

Early life Kerns moved from rural Texas to the New York City area when she was in sixth grade. She completed a B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College. Lawrence Meyer Slifkin was her doctoral advisor. Kerns joined Olin College in 1999 as its founding vice president for innovation and research. She is a professor emerita. They have three children. In the 1980s she applied her expertise as a feline geneticist to conservation efforts at the Carolina Tiger Rescue, caring for and working with many varieties of African and Asian big cats including tigers, lions, and caracals.