Becky Wai-Ling Packard is Mary E. Woolley Professor of Psychology and Education at Mount Holyoke College.
Packard is an expert on mentoring and persistence. Currently she has focused on strategies that higher education institutions, including individual departments, lab teams, or colleges, can use to improve their infrastructure to support the success of students while also investing in the thriving of mentors. Toward this end, she is examining collaboration strategies both within and across institutions.
For much of her career, Packard has studied the experiences of first-generation college students, students of color, low-income students, and community college transfer students, women in technical fields. A multi-racial, first-generation college graduate, she has particular expertise in STEM fields of work and transitions into higher education and work.
The winner of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor awarded by the federal government, Packard has earned and completed National Science Foundation research grants focused on technical and community college transfer pathways, a Google-funded initiative on inclusive peer mentoring in computer science, and a Microsoft-funded initiative focused on mentoring for tech resilience. She was recently named a Fellow of AAAS. Packard completed a rotation at the National Science Foundation as a Program Director for the Division of Undergraduate Education within the STEM Education Directorate. Currently, for the 2026-2027 school year, Packard is pursuing an ACE Fellowship through the American Council on Education where she is further developing her higher education leadership skills.
She works with individuals (e.g., faculty, staff, advisors, mentors, department chairs, and supervisors) to improve the power of mentoring, advising, and teaching, navigate difficult conversations, and improve departmental climate; she also works with organizations to strengthen the mentoring infrastructure and organizational climate. In 2016, Packard completed a Whiting Fellowship in Ireland focused on policy change; in a 2018, she served as a Chancellor’s Leadership Fellow in Residence at UMass Amherst; during the 2018-2019 year, she served as a Faculty Fellow at the University of Michigan. She has visited over 75 campuses to work on these topics.
Past Activities Include:
- Microsoft Tech Resilience Mentoring– check out our free Videos
- Coach for Steve Fund Equity Mental Health Initiative
- Facilitator for USC Equity Institutes
- Faculty for AAC&U High Impact Practice Institute