Connecting and sharing my vision

As scientists and engineers, we feel privileged to have careers that contribute to the progress of knowledge and understanding. The rewards of participating in research and discovery and of mentoring emerging scientists are immense. Science itself is an extraordinary and essential institution. It continues to thrive after centuries of human ingenuity and effort, and to provide significant advancements for societal well-being in areas such as understanding and mitigating global environmental change, achieving innovations for improving public health, and creating technological solutions to widespread societal challenges.

Too often in higher education, the legacy of laws, policies, and practices that have systematically denied educational opportunities to Blacks is ignored, thereby perpetuating racial inequities. In the United States, higher education is a key route to career success and upward socioeconomic mobility. Unfortunately, this path is increasingly becoming most accessible to privileged communities. As the new president of Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, and as a woman of color, I am in a position to help unburden higher education from systemic racism and promote positive change that extends beyond academic boundaries.

My parents instilled in me the importance of education for personal and familial uplifting as well as a means of helping other Black Americans to achieve success. They reminded me that all people are created equal and have inalienable rights—a right to education among them. At a young age, I realized why they tried to enforce this notion. I vividly recall that as a third grader in 1963, I had to walk past a newly built all-white school to be picked up and bused to a dilapidated all-Black school in another part of Panama City, Florida. I wondered what it was like inside. Surely the pristine brick exterior and the well-appointed playground were indicators that, within those walls, white students had new and current textbooks, unlike the worn and outdated ones in my Black school. I wondered what justification there was for denying Blacks the same educational experiences as those afforded to whites. On the bus, I saw the stark contrast as we traveled from an integrated to a segregated neighborhood. As we turned down the dirt road leading to the Black school, I remember a sense of moving between two very different worlds.

Separate worlds indeed, but not equal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 legalized “separate but equal” educational institutions and opportunities for Blacks. Even though the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 declared “separate but equal” to be unconstitutional, many schools remained segregated, including the one in Florida near where my military family lived nearly 10 years later. In higher education, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established in the United States in the early 19th century for Blacks to obtain advanced degrees. Until Brown, most college-educated Blacks graduated from HBCUs.

I eventually became the first Black student to get a doctorate in chemical engineering from Rice University; the fifth woman in the nation to obtain that degree; and the first Black woman in the country to hold a tenure-track position in chemical engineering. But it is discouraging that the challenges that existed along my journey remain challenges faced today by Black students interested in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. There is still a lack of diversity among faculty and students in engineering schools. This environment has negative consequences and feeds a vicious cycle. The dearth of Black faculty role models and mentors contributes to the underrepresentation of Black students. Structural and social barriers such as hostile climates, bias, and tokenism make it difficult to achieve a sense of belonging and limit career choices and opportunities for Black students and faculty, further perpetuating the persistent underrepresentation. Today, 3.9% of students in the United States who graduate with a bachelor's degree in engineering are Black. And only 4.1% of students who graduate with a Ph.D. in engineering in the nation are Black.

Dismantling systemic racism in higher education will require efforts to think and operate in new ways beyond existing programs that support students of color—those efforts are typically targeted to individuals, and what's needed in addition are efforts that promote institutional change. Engineering colleges are a good place for breaking things down and rebuilding. Olin, for example, is committed to applying a co-creation model of change (where students, faculty, and administration work together) that relies on a combination of leadership, shared responsibility and accountability, courageous and effective discourse, mutual understanding, community engagement, and design approaches that have the potential for meaningful change. The lessons learned in our process of experimentation and discovery hopefully can be shared to help other colleges interested in achieving similar goals.

It's time to abandon the myth that students and faculty of color can't be found. Higher education must challenge the status quo.

For much of America’s history, African Americans were discouraged or aggressively prevented from becoming scientists and engineers. Those who did enter STEM fields found that their inventions and discoveries were often neither recognized nor valued. Even today, particularly in the field of engineering, the participation of African American men and women is shockingly low, and some evidence indicates that the situation might be getting worse.

In Changing the Face of Engineering, twenty-four eminent scholars address the underrepresentation of African Americans in engineering from a wide variety of disciplinary and professional perspectives while proposing workable classroom solutions and public policy initiatives. They combine robust statistical analyses with personal narratives of African American engineers and STEM instructors who, by taking evidenced-based approaches, have found success in graduating African American engineers.

Changing the Face of Engineering argues that the continued underrepresentation of African Americans in engineering impairs the ability of the United States to compete successfully in the global marketplace. This volume will be of interest to STEM scholars and students, as well as policymakers, corporations, and higher education institutions.

This book documents the lived experiences of women of color academics who have leveraged their professional positions to challenge the status quo in their scholarship, teaching, service, activism, and leadership. By presenting reflexive work from various vantage points within and outside of the academy, contributors document the cultivation of mentoring relationships, the use of administrative roles to challenge institutional leadership, and more. Through an emphasis on the various ways in which women of color have succeeded in the academy—albeit with setbacks along the way—this volume aims to change the discourse surrounding women of color academics: from a focus on trauma and mere survival to a focus on courage and thriving.

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The aim of this article is to offer a view of the current status of women in medical physics and biomedical engineering, while focusing on solutions towards gender balance and providing examples of current activities carried out at national and international levels. The International Union of Physical and Engineering Scientists in Medicine is committed to advancing women in science and health and has several initiatives overseen by the Women in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Task Group. Some of the main strategies proposed by the Task Group to attain gender balance are: (a) identify and promote female role models that achieve successful work-life balance, (b) establish programs to develop female leaders, (c) create opportunities for females to increase the international visibility within the scientific community, and (d) establish archives and databases of women in STEM.

Beginning with how innovation has traditionally been characterized—what it is, what it looks like, who the innovators are, and what drives innovation—this paper conceptualizes the reframing of innovation with diversity at its core. Innovation is conceived, perceived, and driven in various ways at both individual and organizational levels. How we frame innovation impacts how innovation is carried out, who becomes innovators, and what the ultimate outcomes are. Traditionally, innovation is characterized as a product, process, or service that has an impact on society and represents an improvement. The typical drivers of innovation include access to technology, collaboration, and networks; identification and understanding of unmet needs; and market forces. As currently framed, the full potential of innovation and those who are innovators is not being reached. Women, and women of color in particular, represent an untapped source of talent needed to drive the innovation and entrepreneurship that will ensure national prosperity. Reframing innovation—by applying a lens of inclusion and inclusive innovation and recognizing frameworks that serve as inclusive drivers (diversity inclusion, belongingness, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, intersectionality, reframing problems, storytelling)—holds the key to unlocking and changing the face of innovation and entrepreneurship and to ensuring a better future.