Dr. Pamela McCauley of Oklahoma City was accorded Oklahoma's highest honor. The first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in engineering in Oklahoma was formally inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in November 2022. More than 700 accomplished people have received this commendation since the Oklahoma Hall of Fame’s inception in 1927.

In 2019, Dr. McCauley was recognized at Women of Color magazine's 24th annual Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Conference as the technologist of the year. She was the first academic to receive the top award in almost twenty-five years.

Dr. McCauley has authored over 100 technical papers, book chapters, conference proceedings, four books, and the bestselling ergonomics textbook, Ergonomics: Foundational Principles, Applications, and Technologies.

Her career kicked into high gear in 1993 when she won a $90,000 graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the largest fellowship at the University of Oklahoma. While on campus as a single parent, she also launched support groups and community organizations for young women in STEM.

During her almost three-decade-long career, she spent much of it as a professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF). A few years ago, she became the associate dean for academic programs, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University.

Dr. McCauley has the distinction of being a 2012 U.S. Fulbright Scholar. She won a fellowship for a U.S.-New Zealand Human Engineering and Mobile Technology in High Consequence Emergency Management Research Program focused on biomechanics, human factors, and ergonomic design.

During the 2015-2016 term, the State Department awarded Dr. McCauley the Jefferson Science Fellowship, a distinguished appointment given to senior academics based on their stature in scientific or engineering communities and their ability to understand scientific advancements outside their discipline area to effectively integrate this knowledge into U.S. Department of State/USAID policy discussions.

Dr. The United Nations also tapped McCauley to serve as a global expert on women in STEM and the World Bank to study the use of industrial engineering techniques to promote sustainability of HIV/AIDS healthcare service delivery in developing nations.

More recently, she led the NSF Innovation-Corps Program in the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate. The I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory.

Dr. McCauley’s research also focuses on human engineering in information systems. She has looked at the human impact on information security and how humans interact with technology regarding disaster management. She has also created simulations and technologies to streamline high-consequence disaster management using artificial intelligence (AI). McCauley earned her Ph.D., master's, and bachelor's degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Oklahoma.