spent the first half of her career at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where she was a professor of industrial engineering and held the Pietz professorship for entrepreneurship and economic development. She is now a professor of integrated engineering at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in the Bell Engineering program and the managing partner of Kaizen Consulting.

spent the first half of her career at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where she was a professor of industrial engineering and held the Pietz professorship for entrepreneurship and economic development. She is now at the University of Southern Maine where she is a research professor of engineering and the curriculum specialist for the Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center. Ms. Jennifer L Pratt, University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public ServiceJennifer Pratt is a Research Analyst with extensive experience conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluation projects. Jennifer's strong organizational skills impact a variety of environments in her role at the Muskie School as she guides process flow for several inter-disciplinary teams. She assists with the development and implementation of data collection protocols and surveys. In addition Jennifer develops and facilitates design of databases and use of database management systems, including computer assisted qualitative data analysis tools. She provides technical support and assistance in performance quality improvement (QI) tools that streamline agency processes, improve customer service and enhance agency efficiency and effectiveness.

The recent round of proposed changes to the ABET engineering accreditation criteria has drawn significant attention from the engineering education community. After two decades of alignment between ABET learning outcomes and the stated priorities of the profession as articulated in documents such as Educating the Engineer of 2020, Changing the Conversation, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering's (ASME) Vision 2030, and the American Society for Civil Engineering's (ASCE) Raising the Bar, many have struggled to identify the reasons behind ABET's apparent intent to depart from the ideal of a liberally educated engineer that they themselves were instrumental in creating. Here we employ organizational theory and historical analysis to help explain ABET's actions. How have the broader politics of accreditation and higher education governance shaped ABET's goals and operations? How have changes in accreditation standards and their associated change processes shaped the structure and value commitments of the profession? How do engineering mindsets and corporate cultures shape engineering ontologies and epistemologies of assessment and approaches to governance? How do global neoliberal trends in and beyond higher education shape institutional values and cultures, and how are these embodied in assessment and governance practices? Through historical and organizational analysis we seek to trace changes in the governance structures of engineering education and accreditation, and the impacts of the development and employment of accreditation in higher education. In this paper, we will first provide a brief historical perspective on accreditation processes and organizations in engineering education, with a view to governance structures. Then we offer a more in depth comparison of ABET's development of Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000) with the current proposed revisions as they have unfolded. We seek to develop insights on the role of governance in effecting change in engineering education, and specifically on historical changes in ABET's processes for decision making and theories of change. These insights will point to possible interventions in governance structures to facilitate more inclusive participation in setting future directions for engineering education.