Promoting Equity in STEM Education

Katherine Johnson
A West Virginia native who began her scientific career in the Jim Crow era, Katherine Johnson was one of three Black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools. In 1941, as the United States prepared for war, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that banned racial discrimination in the defense industry. As a skilled mathematician, Katherine was hired by NASA and quickly became an invaluable asset. She manually calculated the precise trajectories that allowed Apollo 11 to land on the moon in 1969.  

Alicia Boler Davis
In the summer of 2020, Alicia Boler Davis became Amazon’s first Black woman Vice President. After graduating from Northwestern with a degree in chemical engineering, Davis began her career at General Motors (GM) as a manufacturing engineer. At GM, Davis was instrumental in engineering and designing a plan to manufacture the award-winning Chevrolet Sonic. The success of her work as an engineer led to a promotion and bolstered her public profile. At Amazon, she is responsible for a worldwide network of over 175 Amazon fulfillment centers that span across 16 countries.

Mae C. Jemison
In 1992, Mae C. Jemison became the first Black woman to travel into space. Before joining NASA’s astronaut training program, Jemison was a trained medical doctor and served as a Medical Officer in the Peace Corps. After a competitive selection process and rigorous training, Jemison flew into space aboard the Endeavour. Jemison was tasked with conducting numerous crew-related scientific experiments on the space shuttle as the Endeavour spent over a week orbiting Earth.

Kizzmekia Corbett
Kizzmekia Corbett has been credited as one of the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s leading scientists in the development of the science that could end the coronavirus pandemic. Corbett received a PhD in microbiology and immunology from UNC-Chapel Hill. In 2014, she joined the NIH Vaccine Research Center as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2020, she was instrumental to a team at the NIH that worked with Moderna, the pharmaceutical company that developed one of the two COVID-19 vaccines.

Bernard A. Harris Jr.
In 1995, Bernard A. Harris Jr. became the first Black astronaut to walk in space. Before becoming an astronaut, Harris completed his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After joining NASA and completing the intensive training required, Harris was given his first assignment aboard the Columbia space shuttle. He and crew member Micahel Foale walked in space in order to test the temperature resilience of their spacesuits.

Marcella Nunez Smith
An associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Yale, Dr. Marcella Nunez Smith has also been named the chairwoman for President Biden’s coronavirus equity task force. She is responsible for advising the President on how to allocate resources and reach underserved populations that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Robert Moses
A lead organizer for the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project that inspires the CDF Freedom Schools program, Robert “Bob” Moses went on to become President and founder of the Algebra Project. Moses holds a M.D. in Philosophy from Harvard and spent time teaching mathematics in Tanzania, East Africa as well as Mississippi. After receiving the MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, Moses created the Algebra Project, a program devoted to improving minority education in math. The focus on algebra is founded in Moses’ belief that the subject is a critical “gatekeeper” necessary for students to acquire in order to advance in math, technology, and science.

Dave Dennis
Dave Dennis worked closely with Robert “Bob” Moses as an organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project before attending the University of Michigan’s Law School. After reconnecting with Bob Moses in 1989, Dennis joined Moses to further develop the Algebra Project. The two men worked to extend the program into the public schools of the Mississippi Delta. Now, Dave Dennis maintains the position of director and CEO of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project. The Algebra Project’s unique approach to school reform is based in promoting productive parent and community involvement to develop models that are sustainable and focus on students.