Tonya Nilsson is a full-time senior lecturer in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering at Santa Clara University. Her Ph.D. research focused on the development of new material properties to model crack propagation on ductile materials. Dr. Nilsson has a strong interest in engineering education. Dr. Nilsson maintains a strong interest in pedagogy in the classroom and the development of hands-on, interactive learning methods in Strength of Materials. She is also interested in construction methods to mitigate damage during seismic and high-wind events in structures built with non-conventional materials and construction methods.