February is Black History Month and also includes Engineers Week. The contributions of women of color in engineering and STEM have long been downplayed in both mainstream society and among engineers themselves.

When I’ve asked non-engineers to name some “engineers”, often I receive the following names as responses:

Bill Gates
Elon Musk
Mark Zuckerberg
Steve Jobs

There’s irony in the fact that three of the four above dropped out of college, and none of them have an engineering degree. You’ll also notice that none of them are women.

In today’s blog, you’ll hear the stories of 8 inspirational Black women engineers and scientists - who should be household names - that have defied the odds and paved the way for future women. The eight highlighted are just a few of the many, without whom we would not be enjoying many of the technological advances we take for granted today.

Black women represent 12.9% of the US population. However, according to the Society of Women in engineering, only 6% of engineering bachelor’s degrees are awarded to Black Women.

US workplaces also struggle to retain women of color, according to a 2019 Catalyst survey, with 52% of Black women surveyed planning to leave their employers in the next two years.

Normalizing and retaining women and women of color in STEM requires redefining what it means to look like an engineer and scientist. It starts with changing the narrative around who we recognize as contributors in the engineering and STEM fields.

And now, in no particular order, here are eight Black women engineers and scientists who made incredible contributions to their fields.

#1 Shirley Ann Jackson

*Dr Shirley Jackson, Photo source: Wikipedia*

Dr Shirley Jackson is the current president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Born on August 5, 1946, She earned both her B.S. (in Physics) and her PhD (in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics) from MIT. She is the first black woman to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the first black woman to preside over a top-ranking university.

She is the recipient of 53 honorary doctorate degrees and she received the National Medal of Science in 2015 by President Obama; She is one among the 50 most important women in Science by Discover Magazine.

Her technological inventions are responsible for call waiting stems and caller ID from the days when she worked at AT&T bell labs, conducting research in quantum physics, theoretical physics, optical physics and solid-state. These inventions have paved the way for numerous developments in the telecommunication space, including the portable fax, the touch-tone telephone, caller ID, fiber-optic cable and call waiting. She has held several leadership positions in government, academia, research and industry.

#2 Marian R Croak

*Marian R Croak, Image source: Wikipedia*

Dr. Marian Clark obtained her PhD in social psychology and Quantitative analysis. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Southern California.

She began her journey in 1982 when she started working at AT&T (then known as Bell Laboratories). She alongside her colleagues were huge advocates for the switch to internet protocol from wire technologies. In 2014, after spending 32 years at AT&T, she left the company to resume work at Google as the vice president of research and development for access strategy and emerging markets. Her major role in this position is to expand internet capabilities across the globe; a role she fully fulfilled.

In 2013, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International’s hall of fame, an honor that recognizes her remarkable achievements in technology. She's also a member of the board at the Human Rights Educational Centre and the Holocaust. In her position as Vice President for Engineering at Google, she holds over 200 patents, primarily in voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP).

#3 Donna Auguste

*Dr Donna Auguste, Image Source: Researchgate*

As a young girl, Donna's interest in engineering and technology was obvious. She would pull household appliances apart, just to see how they worked.

While earning her degree in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkley, a professor told her that she was only allowed into the school because the admission standards had to be followed. Some of the male students refused to work with her on team projects. Perservering, she went on to earn not only that degree, but to be the first Black woman to earn a master’s from Carnegie-Mellon. She also earned a Ph.D. in Technology, Media and Society at the ATLAS Institute of the University of Colorado Boulder.

She also worked as a lead software engineer at Apple in the early 1980’s, where she held 4 patents for her work on the Newton personal digital assistant (PDA), which is considered a critical technological stepping stone to the Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

She went on to found Freshwater software Inc., a software that provides companies with the tools they need to enhance and monitor their internet presence. The company rose to become a multi-million dollar company with several fortune 500 clients. She served as CEO until she sold it for $147million in 2003.

She also founded a Philanthropic Foundation called Leave a Little Room Foundation (LLC) with a core aim to provide Housing, Vaccination and Electricity to poor communities across the globe.

#4 Katherine Johnson

*Katherine Johnson, Image source: Wikipedia*

Katherine Johnson who graduated college at 18 years was handpicked as one of three black students to integrate West Virginia University’s graduate schools in 1939. In the mid-1950s, she was rejected by NASA when she applied the first time, but she persisted and applied again, after which she was employed.

In 1962, while working at NASA, Katherine was asked to re-check the computer's work by hand. This check was required to send John Glenn into Orbit, making her play a major role in the expenditure, and is documented in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures.

In the same year, Katherine worked with NASA's engineering team to pinpoint the exact location and time of departure, placing the astronauts on track for the moon landing.

While only a few people knew who she was when the first astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, Katherine was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in STEM fields by president Obama in 2015.

She is also the co-author of one of the first textbooks about space and she contributed to the plans for Mars Missions. You can read more about her life and biography on NASA’s website HERE.

#5 Mae Jemison

*Dr Mae Jamison, Image Source: Wikipedia*

Dr Mae Jemison is a physician and the first black woman to become an Astronaut. As she shares in this fabulous video interview:

I grew up in the Apollo era and they didn’t have any women astronauts and I thought that was the dumbest thing in the world.

At the age of 3, she and her family moved to Chicago where her uncle introduced her to science. As a high school student, she developed an interest in biomedical engineering. At, only 16 years old, Mae Jemison studied Chemical engineering at Stanford University.

In October 1988, Jemison was one of the fifteen applicants accepted at NASA and in 1988, she completed her training as a missions specialist. She eventually became an astronaut office representative at Cape Canaveral, Florida at the Space Kennedy Centre. Here, her role was to verify space shuttle software and process them for launching.

Her first space flight was in the September 1992 for a week-long mission. She was the only African American female Astronaut and upon her return, she created the Jemison group to build and market advanced technologies.

Dr Jemison also founded an international science camp called The Earth We Share (TEWS). The core vision of the camp is to encourage scientific literacy for all.

#6 Yvonne Clark

Born on the 13th of April, 1929, Yvonne Clark was a pioneer for African-American and women engineers. After she graduated from University, her first job was in a U.S Army ammunition plant called the Frankford Arsenal Gauge Lab. She then proceeded to work at RCA Camden, a small record label in New Jersey where she designed factory equipment.

She was a pioneering female member of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Tennessee State University and she chaired the department twice from 1965-1970 and then again from 1977-1988. Yvonne Clark eventually retired as a professor.

She is the first woman to earn a master's degree in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University, to get a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Howard University, and to serve as a faculty member in the College of Engineering and Technology at Tennessee State University.

In her lifetime, she was awarded the Adult Black Archivers Award, Women of Technology Award for Educational Leadership, Delta Sigma Theta Educator of the year, President's Distinguished University Award and Distinguished Service Award.

Her advice for women in STEM? As shared in this interview with the Society of Women Engineers:

“Prepare yourself. Do your work…Don’t be afraid to ask questions and benefit by meeting with other women. Whatever you like, learn about it and pursue it…The environment is what you make it. Sometimes the environment is hostile, but don’t worry about it. Be aware of it so you aren’t blind-sided.”

#7 Krystle McClain

*Krystle McClain, Image source: Stripes Japan*

Krystal McClain has a chemical engineering degree and a masters in environmental engineering, and the winner of the 2019 Black Engineers Award in Professional Achievement. Since 2015, Krystle McClain has worked for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Far East.

Currently, she leads a team of environmental Technicians and Engineers in Japan and the US as Commander, Fleet Activities, Yokosuka. They provide a full range of environmental management, compliance and planning services for the most complex and largest US Overseas base.

She’s also very active in her local community, occupying leadership roles that in educating young people about STEM careers and in other service-oriented organizations. As she says in a Ladieslovestem.com interview:

I feel it is important to get more women/girls into STEM because we bring a different perspective to problem solving. Men and women are wired differently and what better way to “think outside the box” then to have a woman/girl on your team.

You can read more about Krystal’s career path in this Ladies Love Stem interview HERE.

#8 Aprille Ericsson-Jackson

*Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, Image source: USA Science and Engineering Festival*

Aprille Ericsson-Jackson’s love for science began in childhood. She watched the Apollo missions on TV in first grade and won 2nd place in her 8th grade science fair where she built her first science instrument. She became determined to become an astronaut.

April earned a B.S. in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering in 1986 from MIT, an M.S. in engineering from Howard University, and became the first black woman to earn a PhD from both Howard University and NASA Goddard space flight center in mechanical engineering and engineering respectively.

Aprille has been called “instrumental in NASA’s growth.” She has deepened our understanding of the solar system, worked as an Instrument and has decades of experience in structural dynamics and spacecraft missions control. She has managed science instruments like the ATLAS, which makes use of lasers to gauge the height of vegetation canopies and the depth of Ice sheets. She also is an instrument manager for the proposed mission to bring dust from the lower parts of Mars back to Earth.

She is also considered a proponent for girls and girls of color in STEM. In this interview, she talks about the lack of women and minorities in STEM fields:

"The United States cannot afford to lose more than half of its talent and the fresh perspective that women and minorities can bring to these critical fields. We must work together across the boundaries of skin color and gender."