Dr. Rebecca Kuntz Willits is Chairperson and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, and has an affiliated appointment in Bioengineering. She has been on the faculty at Saint Louis University from 1999-2010 and at The University of Akron from 2010-2020. Her current research interests are at the intersection of nerve regeneration, tissue engineering, and biomaterials. Her lab works as a multidisciplinary team, with close collaborations with faculty from polymer science, mechanical engineering, and biophysics, as well as physicians in plastic and orthopedic surgery. Dr. Willits has received funding for her research from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and research foundations, and is a fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). She has served BMES on national committees continuously since 2007, currently as a Diversity Committee member. She is actively engaged in increasing diversity of faculty in engineering, developing workshops and mentoring programs with NSF funding.