Mike Toole has been an entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary leader in the military, industry and academia. Before becoming the Dean of the University of Toledo College of Engineering in August 2017, Dr. Toole spent 18 years at Bucknell University, where his positions included Associate Dean of Engineering, Professor of Civil and Env. Engineering, Director of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program, Director of the Institute for Leadership in Technology and Management, Senior Fellow in the Society & Technology Residential College, an elected member of Faculty Council, and an appointed member of Presidential Task Forces studying campus climate, online learning, and the creation of a college of management. A professional civil engineer (PA), Toole received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University, and an M.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Technology Strategy from M.I.T. His scholarship focuses on Prevention through Design, in which designers explicitly consider the safety of construction and maintenance workers, and he initiated and maintains http://www.designforconstructionsafety.org. His Google Scholar Citations = 1883 citations, h-index 18, i10-index 27 as of Jan. 11, 2021.
Previous employment includes serving as a Company Commander in a Seabee Battalion and Asst. Resident Officer in Charge of Construction with U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, Purchasing Manager with Ryland Homes, and Vice President with a multidisciplinary engineering firm. He co-founded three ventures involving innovative design or construction. He served as Vice Chair of the ASCE/Construction Institute Prevention through Design Committee and the Site Safety Committee and as Co-Chair of the NIOSH NORA Construction Sector Council Prevention through Design workgroup. Toole’s current board memberships include the DriveOhio Government Advisory Board (appointed by the Governor of Ohio), the Board of the Toledo Society of Professional Engineers, the Board of the Engineering Foundation of Ohio, Board of Better Business Bureau of NW Ohio and SW Michigan, and he is the Chair of the Ohio Engineering Deans Council. Past honors include being elected a Fellow within ASCE, receiving Best Paper awards from an ASCE journal and an ASCE conference, receiving the Class of 1956 Teaching Award, and being nominated by Bucknell for the U.S. Professor of the Year award. He is a member of the Order of the Engineer and six national honor societies.