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“Leadership isn't just a title or a role that you take on for an organization. It is a personal commitment that you make to inspire, motivate, and uplift those around you. To be a leader is to choose a life that is dedicated to serving the wellbeing of others.” ― Junior Bernadin About Junior Bernadin Mr. Bernadin is the dean of students and director of IT at the highly-acclaimed Ron Clark Academy (RCA), an innovative middle school and educator training facility. Along with his colleagues, he has helped provide professional development to over 80,000 educators worldwide to learn better ways to engage students, increase academic excellence, and create a climate and culture for success. Mr. Bernadin has spent the past 12 years serving as an expert that helps schools to create, improve, or manage their house system. Originally, from Miami, Fl. Mr. Bernadin has a B.A. in International Affairs from Florida State University and a M.S. in IT Management from Regis University. He has also held certifications as a Promethean Certified Installer, and Microsoft Certified Professional. In his role as the Dean of Students, he works with the cofounders in carrying out the RCA's culture and climate. In his role as director of information technology, Mr. Bernadin provides all system support to the Academy as well as maintaining and managing all levels of technical support and integration within the school. In 2009, he organized students participating in RCA's Senior Tech program, a student-led program where senior citizens learn computer literacy skills. In addition to these impactful roles, he also leads and empowers students by: Serving as one of the mentors and coaches of the RCA FLL Robotics Team Hosting and leading multiple STEM Camps Implementing and serving as the mentor for the RCA Jr. Tech Engineer's Program Coaching the 4-time National Champion RCA Step Team Advising the 5-time National Champion MATHCounts Video Challenge Team. In 2017, his students designed apps with other students worldwide as part of a compassion-based engineering project called MAD About Mattering. In 2020 and 2021, Mr. Bernadin served as a TA for multiple cohorts of MIT Media Labs' classroom research pilots, which focused on testing new AI tools and methods for teaching AI material to K-12 students. Mr. Bernadin continues to dedicate himself to serving youth and the Atlanta community. He serves on the board of directors for Dance Canvas, a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities and venues to increase the awareness of professional dance prospects in Atlanta. He also serves on the board of directors for Building Future Leaders, whose purpose is to establish a set of dynamic, experiential leadership development curricula targeting a wide range of audiences, including but not limited to, high school youth, university students, and professionals. He is a mentor for 100 Black Men of South of Metro Atlanta and life-member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. For his dedication to service and pursuit of excellence, Mr. Bernadin was recently named as one of the Top 100 Leaders in Education by the Global Forum for Education and Learning. He was also recognized as the Atlanta Business Chronicles 40 Under 40, Georgia Trend Magazine 40 Under 40, Walmart Community Playmaker, Florida State University Thirty Under Thirty, the Forbes Technology Council, and one of the People Behind the People sponsored by McDonald’s and TVOne. He was recently accepted into the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2022. Mr. Bernadin currently resides in Fayetteville, GA, with his lovely wife, Dr. Tashinea Bernadin and daughter Amira Bernadin. What is the most important factor behind your success? As I reflect on the numerous experiences in my life, I can’t help but think about the driving forces in my life. My life is grounded by multiple factors that include but are not limited to God, family, and friends. These three influencers in my life were instrumental in helping me to understand that to be successful, you need a purpose. My ultimate goal is to help people, especially our youth. This purpose allows me to redirect talent and resources to a career field that enables me to not only mentor and motivate the youth, but also train educators to do the same. When your purpose is rooted in positivity and uplifting others, the real magic happens. When you are walking in God’s mission, the universe aligns itself in a way that will show that you are in the right place. Your purpose will allow your heart to be at peace and for you to live with no regrets. I challenge you to find your purpose! Website: juniorbernadin.com Instagram: @mrjbernadin Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jbernadin/ Twitter: @jbernadin Facebook: facebook.com/Jbernadin1911

“I think I’ve had more failures than successes, but I don’t see the failures as mistakes because I always learned something from those experiences. I see them as having not achieved the initial goal, nothing more than that.” ― James Edward West About James Edward West Electrical engineer James Edward West was born on February 10, 1931 in Farmville, Virginia to Samuel Edward and Matilda West. At various points, his father worked as a funeral home owner, an insurance salesman, and as a porter on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His mother was a school teacher and worked at Langley Air Force Base during World War II, later losing her job because of her involvement in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. West’s interest in electricity resulted from his work with his cousin to put electrical wiring into homes in rural Virginia when he was twelve years old. After graduating from George P. Phoenix High School, West went on to attend Hampton University in Virginia with plans of attending medical school. Nevertheless, West was drafted and sent to serve in the Korean War, where he was awarded a Purple Heart. West later became a pacifist and transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia. He decided to change his concentration and went on to receive his degree in physics in 1957. West was hired at Bell Laboratories, where he began his studies to obtain his Ph.D. degree. During the second year of his doctorate program, West and a colleague, Gerhard Sessler, constructed a small microphone that did not require the use of a battery. This electret microphone replaced the carbon microphone and revolutionized communications technology. West’s invention was used in such devices as hearing aids and space technology. Even today, 90% of microphone technology had its foundation in West’s development of the electret microphone. West retired from Lucent Technologies as a Bell Laboratories Fellow in 2001. He has continued to do research, joining the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 2002. His research interests include, among other things, finding new technology that will replace the electret microphone. West’s inventions and contributions in electrical engineering have garnered him a great deal of recognition. In 1999, West was the fourth African American selected to join the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the invention of the electret microphone. He also received the U.S. National Medal of Technology in 2006. He has forty-seven U.S. patents, over 200 foreign patents, and has written over a hundred academic papers. In addition to his multiple contributions to acoustical science, throughout his career West has been a fervent advocate for greater diversity in the fields of science and technology. While at Bell Laboratories, West co-founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees (ABLE), an organization formed to "address placement and promotional concerns of Black Bell Laboratories employees." He was also instrumental in the creation and development of both the Corporate Research Fellowship Program (CRFP) for graduate students pursuing terminal degrees in the sciences, as well as the Summer Research Program, which together provided opportunities for over 500 non-white graduate students. Since 2015, Dr. West has served on the Board of Directors of the Ingenuity Project, a Baltimore non-profit that supports talented middle and high school students in science and math. West and his wife Marlene have four adult children, Melanie, Laurie, James and Ellington.

“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. About Tai Prince Ms. Tai Prince is a Senior QHSES Programs Specialist, employed by TechnipFMC, responsible for implementing and communicating company-wide quality, health, safety, environmental and security strategies and programs to ensure highest standards are achieved for our customers and product lifecycle. Tai has a breadth of experience in mechanical engineering, vehicle design and manufacturing Project Management, including certifications in Six Sigma and quality engineering. With progressively advancing leadership roles, Tai achieves unparalleled results by building effective teams, both stateside and overseas, and lauded for transforming complex, multi-factorial problems into winning solutions. Tai uses her professional leadership and technical skills as a platform to advance her most passionate lifelong goal--creating opportunities for others through volunteerism, mentoring, and sponsorship. She develops and leads multiple programs and events that support STEM and her companies' philanthropic corporate projects. She serves as a Judge Advisor with FIRST Robotics; on the Women’s Energy Network Houston board as Co-Director of Community Initiatives and the Young Leader Co-Chair for United Way Greater Houston. Tai's enterprising abilities blended her innovation skills and love for baking, and launched a successful gourmet cupcake business >>> Cocktails & Cupcakes, LLC (you can support Tai by navigating to her website >>> cocktails-n-cupcakes.com). What does Black History Month mean to you? Black History honors our historic past, present, and future leaders of our community. I am creating my Black History by serving in STEM education and uplifting students to create their own Black History. Tai Prince was nominated by James Marshall, HSE Umbilical & REMS Program Manager at TechnipFMC. I've worked with Tai for quite some time now and I cannot think of a single person who has done more to beat the drum for the importance of STEM education. Tai was given the opportunity to host a STEM event during our company's contribution to its United Way Campaign and catapulted that presentation into an annual STEM Day that has been corporately sponsored and celebrated for over 4 years now. Because of Tai, not only does TechnipFMC have an investment in STEM education for our employees and surrounding community but our company has doubled down and continuously committed to Tai setting the stage and taking our vision and mission to the City of Houston's largest annual FREE family festival "Energy Day" which showcases STEM for all to enjoy. Tai, on top of her professional work and responsibilities, sacrifices countless hours organizing, directing, designing, and all other magical and mystical deeds to ensure the STEM projects are the very best. Tai absolutely is invested in STEM education and has backed up all of her talk by walking the walk! She has been a superb General and an Inspiring Leader! She has been infectious (in a positive way) and has hooked us all on STEM again as if we were small children in an elementary lab. She has brought children from all walks of life, demographics and made them feel like Engineers, Teachers, Scientists and Inventors. She is truly a wonder and I am so very proud we have her and will follow her down this road of STEM education blindly, because I've seen her dedication and her magic and most importantly her unwavering commitment to make certain everyday, every week, every year this crusade continues to live on.

"A Negro Genius" - The National Press About J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was a prominent African American mathematician and physicist who worked at the University of Chicago Met Lab during the Manhattan Project. Wilkins entered the University of Chicago in 1936 at the age of 13, becoming one of the youngest students to ever attend the university. After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at 17, he continued his academic studies, receiving a Master’s degree the next year. In 1942, at the age of 19, Wilkins became the seventh African American to obtain a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the university. After graduation, Wilkins taught mathematics at the Tuskegee Institute before joining the University of Chicago Met Lab in 1944. Working in collaboration with Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi, Wilkins researched methods for producing fissionable nuclear materials, focusing in particular on plutonium-239. He did not learn the purpose of his research until the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In the fall of 1944, Wilkins's team was scheduled to be transferred to Oak Ridge, but Jim Crow laws prevented him from taking up a scientific post there. Instead, Edward Teller recommended him for a position with Eugene Wigner who at the time was researching the design and development of nuclear reactors that would convert uranium into weapons grade plutonium. Wilkins collaborated with Wigner on research in neutron absorption, leading to their discovery of the Wigner-Wilkins approach for estimating the distribution of neutron energies within nuclear reactors. Their joint paper, written in 1944 and declassified in 1948, was eventually published in Wigner’s Collected Works. Wilkins, along with seventy other Manhattan Project scientists working at the Met Lab, signed Leo Szilard’s petition to President Truman. Like many scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, Wilkins was interested in the potential peaceful applications of atomic energy. From 1950-1960 he held a variety of positions at the Nuclear Development Corporation of America (NDA), later the United Nuclear Corporation (UNC), in White Plains, New York. As a senior mathematician and manager of the Physics and Mathematics departments, Wilkins oversaw a range of research and development projects and worked closely with the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1970, Wilkins became the Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematical Physics at Howard University, where he founded the university’s Ph.D program in mathematics. From 1974 to 1975 Wilkins served as president of the American Nuclear Society, and in 1976 became the second African American to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors an engineer can receive. He was also a visiting scientist and Distinguished Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory. Wilkins retired in 2003. He passed away at the age of 87 on May 1, 2011 in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

To whom much is given, much is expected – Luke 12:48 About Mauri Schoby Mauri Schoby is a Senior Project Execution Director at Dow, Inc. where she leads a team responsible for digital technology implementations across the Global Operations organization. Mauri is also responsible for leading the Operations Control and Compliance team which ensures the effectiveness of risk management, internal control measures and governance processes in Global Operations. She graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt. Mauri has led the Dow recruiting team for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) for over 25 years and represents Dow on the NSBE Board of Corporate Affiliates (BCA). In 2012, Mauri received “The Gene Washington Champion of Champions Award” from NSBE, which recognizes BCA members that go above and beyond the call of duty as representatives within their organizations on the society’s behalf. Mauri is also an active member of the Dow – Southern University recruiting team for the College of Engineering. Mauri’s passion is recruiting, mentoring, and developing STEM talent. Giving back to the next generation by sharing her knowledge and wisdom gives her satisfaction in knowing she is helping to build a robust pipeline of diverse STEM talent for the future. Mauri is married to her husband of 28 years, Jerry Schoby. What does Black History Month mean to you? To me, Black History Month is a time to reflect on our past, our present, our future. Reflect on the past sacrifices and achievements that our ancestors made to pave the way for us. Reflecting on our present efforts to build on the foundation our ancestors created for us to continue to learn, grow and prosper as a culture. And lastly, reflection of the hope for a truly better and brighter future for the next generations of African Americans. Mauri Schoby was nominated by Earl Shipp, Board Member of National Grid, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, and Olin Corporation. Shipp's reflections: I’ve never seen a better people oriented leader. This was always recognized by her leadership. Her work with NSBE over the years had by far the largest impact on Diversity and Inclusion of any effort in the 100 year history of Dow. The program she helped develop and lead, brought hundreds of African American professionals into the company. Additionally, her template was adopted in Dow S.W.E., SHPE, and Black MBA recruitment efforts - with equal success. They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!

“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” Dr. Carter G. Woodson About Dr. Peggie Ward Koon Dr. Peggie Ward Koon was born in Millen, Georgia, the youngest of 10 children. Her father (Enoch Ward) was a sharecropper and her mother (Irene Clark Ward), who completed the local one-room high school, was a housewife. When Peggie was 9 months old, her older brother Charles, the family’s first trailblazer, encouraged the family to move to “the city” of Augusta, Georgia so that his younger siblings would have better educational and career opportunities. Dr. Koon was in the first group of students to desegregate Tubman Middle School and the Academy of Richmond County High School, which changed the trajectory of her life, allowing her to take more advanced classes and to receive a General Motors Scholarship. As a General Motors Scholar, Peggie received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from Smith College, then continued her study of mathematics and information technology as a General Motors Graduate Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She holds a doctorate degree in management information systems from Kennedy Western University. Dr. Koon was inspired to excel in the STEM disciplines and to pursue a STEM career by her older siblings who held degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering, chemical engineering, theoretical particle physics, and engineering. Peggie attributes her interest in technology to her Smith College experience. As a General Motors (GM) Scholar at Smith, Peggie was given the opportunity during the summer of her junior year to work as an intern at the GM Data Center. Upon her return to Smith, Koon took her first computer science class. Since that time, she has spent her entire career in STEM fields. Dr. Koon’s experience utilizing emerging technologies and automation to lead change spans four decades and is the basis for her book, Leading Change, A Practical Guide for Change Agents. She also is the author of more than forty published management and technical articles and papers focused on strategic change, leadership, diversity & inclusion, change management, IT and OT automation, and process control for both discrete and continuous processing in the automotive, aerospace, nuclear reprocessing, insulating products, textile, and media industries. In 2021, Dr. Koon kicked-off the Global Leadership Development Program for Women in STEM training series sponsored by BRASIC (the Belt and Road Alliance for Sensing and IoT Collaboration) and CICS (the China Instrument and Control Society) with her presentation, “How to Successfully Lead Change”. Dr. Koon is best known as a strategist, consultant, coach, and author. She is the founder and former CEO of Leading Change, LLC., and the former vice president of audience for Chronicle Media, Morris Publishing Group, Augusta, Georgia. Dr. Koon is currently the President of the Alumnae Association of Smith College (AASC). She is also a member of the Smith College Board of Trustees. In 2014, Dr. Koon became the first Black and second female president of the then 69 year old International Society of Automation, (ISA | https://www.isa.org /), a global organization of 40,000+ automation professionals. And in 2015, Koon was the first Black female Chair of the Automation Federation (AF |https://www.automationfederation.org ). In 2017, she served as the Interim Director of ISA. Dr. Koon began her career as the first Black female manufacturing engineer at the Inland Division of General Motors, where she worked with robotics in the manufacture of automotive foam seats. Koon then worked on the launch site ground operations system (LSGOS) and development of statistical gravitational pull tests for the thermal protections system (TPS) for Nasa’s Space Shuttle at Rockwell International. She also held various IT and OT roles at Babcock & Wilcox and Allied General/Bechtel’s Barnwell Nuclear Fuels Plant before becoming the first Black female Process Control Manager for Graniteville Company. She was promoted to Director of Integrated Manufacturing Systems /Plant Systems at Avondale Mills/Graniteville Company, leading the company’s implementation of process control and process automation systems across the enterprise at locations in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Dr. Koon is passionate about the education of the next generation of STEM professionals. Koon was an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina in Aiken, South Carolina, teaching principles of business information systems to senior undergraduate students in the School of Business. She has also authored several articles about the “STEM Divide” or the effect of emerging technologies and competency based credentialing programs on workforce qualifications. In 2014, as president of ISA, Koon spoke at the U.S. News & World Report STEM Solutions Conference on “Exploring the Role of Credentials Versus Degrees”. Koon also led a workshop entitled “Are We There Yet,” for graduates and prospective employers, at the 2016 National Society of Black Engineers’ 42nd Annual Conference. And in 2021, Koon explored the importance of addressing today’s changing workforce dynamics when building a strategy for Smart Manufacturing as a part of ISA’s IIoT & Smart Manufacturing virtual webinar series. Dr. Koon is also passionate about diversity & inclusion (D&I). Having served on numerous panels focused on D&I issues, she is acutely aware of the specific challenges faced by Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), both in education and in industry. In 2015, she moderated a panel on Diversity & Inclusion at the ISA Fall Leaders’ Meeting. In 2016, she moderated the D&I panel entitled “No Girls Allowed” at the “Redefining Success” Smith Women’s Leadership Conference. She also served as a panelist on “Workforce Diversity: Attracting the Next-Generation Industrial Workforce” at the 2016 Automation Conference. Dr. Koon has also published two novels: The Frog and the Redneck and Where Would I Be, the Life and Times of Irene Clark Ward. Dr. Peggie Ward Koon is an ordained Baptist Deacon at the First Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia. She is the wife of Wayne Noland Koon. They are the proud parents of one son, Avery Koon; they also have four grandchildren. What's one of your favorite quotes? “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” - Edward Everett Hale What does Black History Month mean to you? When I reflect on Black History Month I am of course grateful the month of February has been established as a time when our nation and the world are intentional in its effort to raise awareness of our heritage as a people – to both recognize the sacrifices made and to celebrate the numerous amazing accomplishments of Black men and women -- and its importance to America’s history. It’s also a time when we should celebrate the sacrifices and accomplishments of those closest to us -- within our own families – who have made or are making a difference in our world. During this month, more than ever, I remember the contributions of my older brothers Enoch Ward, Jr. and Dr. Bennie F.L. Ward. Enoch Ward, Jr. was the valedictorian at Lucy Laney High School at the age of 16. At 18 years of age, when Enoch had already completed two years at Paine College, (an HBCU), he agreed to transfer to the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was the first Black student to live on the Georgia Tech campus and the first Black student to graduate from Georgia Tech with a degree in chemical engineering. During that same time, Dr. Bennie F.L. Ward was in that first group of students to desegregate the all-white Academy of Richmond County High School. Dr. Ward completed his MS and PhD degrees in theoretical particle Physics at Princeton University in a record 3 years. Dr. Ward was the first Black person named as Chair of the Department of Physics at Baylor University; he remains at Baylor as a Distinguished Professor of Physics. Dr. Ward developed a solution to the cosmological constant problem showing that quantum mechanics can be used to treat the general theory of relativity without having to change the conditions of the theory (e.g., without having “to go to higher dimensional spaces, or change the nature of space and time”) - without modifying Dr. Einstein’s theory. I am so proud of Bennie for his contributions to theoretical particle physics and of both of them for being exemplary role models for our family. Black History Month reminds me of the “Power of One.” Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History, used his spheres of influence to raise awareness of our rich Black heritage within the Black Community. He had a vision that Black American History would be shared with the rest of the world, and he used what he had – his home in D.C. -- to publish the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin; to run a publishing company called Associated Publishers; and to organize the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) to jumpstart the effort. Then something incredible happened: what began as a weekly publication became a monthly celebration – not just within the Black Community but across our nation and around the globe. Knowing what Dr. Woodson started as just one person – what he was able to do - is inspiring and gives me hope for future generations. It’s why I am so proud of the many Black men and women, including my brothers and sisters, who paved the way for me. And it’s why I am so immensely proud of the work my brother, Dr. Bennie Ward, has done and continues to do. It’s why Black people ought to celebrate the accomplishments of the “Ones” – the individuals in our families – our family heritage, too….and not just during Black History Month, but all year long. Dr. Koon was nominated by Rhonda Pelton, Operational Excellence Leader at Dow Inc.: Dr. Peggie Koon has been a leader in the area of Process Automation and Technology for over 30 years. She is not only a change management leader, author and serves on several non-profit boards but she is an amazing role model and great mentor. Dr. Koon deserves her flowers as she is an outstanding STEM Pioneer!

"Dream the impossible because dreams do come true." Elijah McCoy About Elijah McCoy Elijah McCoy overcame challenges that African-Americans faced in his time for education and employment to become one of the first successful contributors to the field of tribology. McCoy was an exceptionally bright young man and excelled in mathematics and science. Around the age of 15, he completed his local education and his father sought to send him to an engineering school. Upon the advice of a friend, he eventually sent him to apprentice in Edinburgh, Scotland. McCoy spent five years in Edinburgh as an apprentice to a mechanical engineer. He ultimately moved back to Ypsilanti in 1864, at the close of the Civil War, as a “master mechanic and engineer,” but racial prejudice would slow his blossoming career, as he found it difficult to obtain a position in the engineering field. Since he was unable to find work as a degreed engineer, he went to work on a job as a fireman and oiler on the Michigan Central Railroad in 1870. As McCoy discovered on the job, one of the major inefficiencies of railroading was proper lubrication of the engine’s moving parts. Trains had to stop periodically to be lubricated by hand, so as not to over-heat. He soon realized the need for a device to provide oil directly into a railroad engine and he set out to create one. McCoy began to study the subject of engine lubrication and experimented in his father’s barn, but it was in his machine shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, that he invented his famous lubricating cup. He used a piston within an oil-filled chamber and driven by steam pressure to release oil into the appropriate parts of the engine. He patented this Automatic Steam Chest Locomotive Lubrication Device (U.S. Patent 129,843) in 1872. This new device lubricated the engine while it moved, thus eliminating the need for time consuming and expensive stops to lubricate. This invention became Elijah’s crowning glory as an inventor and it is still in use today. It didn’t take long for McCoy’s invention to revolutionize the railroad industry. In July of 1872, William Gardner Shipman, an engineer, was quoted in the Ypsilanti Commercial “I have been using the Elijah McCoy’s Patent Lubrication Cup for some time and pronounce it to be the very best lubricating cup I have ever used.” Railroad officials soon hired McCoy to instruct their employees on how to install and maintain the new devices; and from 1872 to 1915 all railroad locomotives were equipped specifically with McCoy lubricators. In his spare time, McCoy continued to experiment and develop new inventions - 50 by the end of his career - which included variations on the automatic lubricator, folding ironing tables and even a lawn sprinkler. He was responsible for 57 total patents filed with the U.S. government. Lacking the capital with which to manufacture his lubricators in large numbers, he usually assigned his patent rights to his employers or sold them to investors who would make millions from his work. Lubricators with the McCoy name were not manufactured until 1920, near the end of his career, when he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company to produce them. McCoy eventually passed away on October 10, 1929, at the age of 85, after suffering injuries from a car accident seven years earlier in which his wife Mary died. Elijah McCoy was nominated by Rich Wurzbach, President of MRG Laboratories: Elijah McCoy challenged the status quo of manual lubrication, worked to patent his designs, and the result is a safer and more efficient industry that routinely utilizes automatic lubrication devices to extend equipment life and reduce wear and damage to machinery. He is the inspiration for the Elijah McCoy Award which I have suggested to the International Council for Machinery Lubrication to annually honor an outstanding lubrication practitioner that brings innovation to the work of machinery lubrication.

"The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth." Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune About Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune One of America’s most inspirational daughters, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, national civil rights pioneer & activist, champion of African-American women’s rights, advisor to Presidents of the United States and one of the most influential women of the twentieth century. Dr. Bethune was the daughter of former slaves, but she used the power of education, political activism, and civil service to achieve racial and gender equality throughout the United States and the world. Born Mary Jane McLeod on July 10, 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina, she had the unusual opportunity to attend school and receive an education not common among African Americans following the Civil War. Most of her schooling prepared her for missionary work abroad, though she would never serve. Instead, she taught at schools in Georgia and South Carolina. On October 3, 1904, she started her school for negro girls in Daytona Beach, FL with $1.50, 5 little girls and faith in God. That school is now Bethune-Cookman University. When Dr. Bethune first opened the school, she did not have supplies or classroom materials for her students but she was innovative. She went to the city dump to find old furniture and wood pieces to re-use and upcycle for desks and seating. Items that could not be repurposed was burned and the products remaining were used as chalk. Additionally, she instructed her son and students to collect elderberries so that they could make ink for their writing purposes. Early on, Dr. Bethune taught her students homemaking (i.e. baking, sewing, etc) skills as well as agriculture and farming. Her entrepreneurship skills kept the school afloat as she taught her students to bake and sell sweet potato pies and fresh eggs from the campus farm to railroad workers. As donors helped to add towards her vision of expanding her school, she was able to offer more advanced industrial-based offerings. Once her all female school merged with the all male school called the Cookman Institute (in Jacksonville, FL), she was able to create Bethune-Cookman College and earned junior college status. As a junior college, she was able to offer programs in education, business and the industrial arts; wherein, students earned credentials to become stenographers for telegraph companies, carpenters, seamstresses/tailors and teachers. Eventually, she opened the only Black owned hospital in the area on her campus and held nursing training sessions there. Because of these opportunites available for students, she was able to offer training to supporters and veterans of World War II and beyond. Dr. Bethune's national and global influence as an advisor to five U.S. presidents, the first African American with an appointment to run a federal agency (NYA) and the only African American to help write the Charter for the United Nations (UN), positioned her to assist by ensuring funding for the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen and the integration of the American Red Cross and Army Corps for Women. In 1935, Dr. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) which still exists today " to lead, advocate for, and empower women of African descent, their families and communities (www.ncnw.com)." In 1953 Dr. Bethune established the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation as a nonprofit corporation to promote her social and educational ideals. Undaunted, she continued to champion democratic values and faith in the American creed until she died at her home as the result of a heart attack on May 18, 1955 at the age of 79. This year, a beautifully crafted marble statue of Dr. Bethune will be installed into the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall collection as the first African American to represent a state (Florida) there. Her likeness is the first replacement in 100 years for the state of Florida, and she will replace the statue of Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith (installed in 1922). Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was nominated by Dr. Connie Rivers Mitchell, STEM Educator & Advocate (riversedgeteam@gmail.com): Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was a STEM educator before the acronym was ever curated. Her philosophy for educating youth and young adults entailed using the head, heart and hands to identify strategies using collaborative efforts to critically think through problems to find impactful and effective solutions to better serve African American communities-at-large.

About George Antoin Smith Mr. George Antoin Smith has been a leader in engineering since he was a student at Lindblom Technical High School in Chicago in the late 1960s. He was a member of the Junior Engineers Technical Society, President of the Honors Society, an awardee of the Straight-A Scholastic S-Emblem, and recipient of a merit-based award from the Chicago Engineers Club for his academic excellence. Mr. Smith went on to attend Purdue University, where he and 5 freshman friends from two Chicago Public Schools became the first members of a new association for Black engineering students. It was launched by upperclassmen, Edward Barnett, Fred Cooper, and a PhD candidate named Arthur J. Bond. That organization grew and on April 12th of 1975, Arthur Bond and the Chicago 6 founded NSBE, the National Society of Black Engineers. As a NSBE Co-Founder, Mr. Smith designed the SBE logo, Chaired the Publications Committee, served on the Executive Committee, and Moderated the Region III deliberations during NSBE’s First/Founding Conference. After graduating from Purdue with a degree in Electrical Engineering, George worked in the Miniature Lamp Engineering Department of the General Electric Company. Mr. Smith developed an interest in technical sales and joined the Electronic Components Group of the Hewlett-Packard Company. There he rose from Staff Engineer, to Field Engineer, to the District Manager position. In his management role he was responsible for leading Field Engineers in five Midwestern States. In 1989 George received the highest recognition by the HP sales organization, the President’s Club Award. This most prestigious honor was presented directly to George by HP’s Founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. During his career, George Smith also authored two books that were published by the American Society for Quality. The book, Sales Process Engineering, authored by Dr. Paul Selden, named George A. Smith a pioneer of Sales Process Engineering. Since his retirement in 2015, George Smith is still actively “Living the NSBE Mission”. Mr. Smith remains very busy as a STEM advocate, classroom speaker, and volunteer with a variety of youth-focused STEM organizations including NSBE Jr., Project Syncere, ChiS&E, and the Chicago Engineers Foundation to name just a few of his philanthropic pursuits. In addition, Mr. Smith worked diligently for two years to help the National Inventors Hall of Fame induct the first Black Woman Inventor into the organization's historic ranks. Because of the efforts of George Smith and the nomination team assembled by Black Women in Science & Engineering (BWISE), Dr. Patricia Bath will be posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on May 5th, 2022. It is a true honor to know Mr. George Smith. I first met George in 2019, when the Chicago Engineers Foundation created our history book and we found his name on a list of award recipients from the 1970s. We took a shot and contacted Mr. Smith through LinkedIn, and it turned out he was THE George Smith who received a scholarship from our organization in 1971, just before he left for Purdue. When I first met George in person a few years ago, he walked in holding the original letter he received from Chicago Engineers Foundation telling him he was a $100 scholarship recipient. He told us it was the first time someone outside of his school and community recognized his academic merit. That's a George Smith story I carry with me and love to share because it describes so much about his character. From that first meeting, I've been a George Smith fan. He was the recipient of our organization's first Distinguished Alumni Award, and has gone on to be a member of our Associate Council as well as an active volunteer with our K-12 outreach activities. I had the absolute honor to accompany George when he did his very first classroom visit as a Chicago Engineers Foundation volunteer. George told me later that it was his first classroom presentation. We visited an elementary school in the Lawndale neighborhood, and this school, that did not have a dedicated Science program, was blown away that a NSBE Co-Founder was coming to visit their students. George did an outstanding presentation about Black Scientists, Engineers, and Inventors in American History, a presentation he has continued to do not only with our organization, but with other nonprofits across Chicago and the country. George Smith recently shared that his classroom presentation became the catalyst for bringing Dr. Patricia Bath's nomination to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. A young girl in that first presentation asked Mr. Smith why the portion of his presentation about the Inventors Hall of Fame did not include any women. George quickly pivoted to talk to the children about Dr. Patricia Bath, a physician and laser scientist who revolutionized cataract removal surgery by becoming the first person in the world to use a laser to remove cataracts from a human eye. George told the class that he strongly believed Dr. Patricia Bath SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame. In true George Smith fashion, he helped make that young girl's comment into a well-deserved honor for Dr. Bath. George Smith was nominated by Debbie Birrell, Executive Director of Chicago Engineers' Foundation: I could write on and on about George Smith, and the enduring legacy he continues to create for future generations of STEM professionals. Mr. Smith's work in the STEM field, as a mentor to younger generations, is beyond measure. It is truly my honor to nominate Mr. George A. Smith as a historic, present, and future Black STEM professional everyone should know.

About Sgt. Tony Reid Commercial sUAS Pilot Sgt. Tony Reid has been in the UAV drone industry for 5 years. He received his Part 107 UAS Certification in September 2016. Since then he has trained and deployed with the American Red cross, operating in many missions from Mapping in Hurricane Harvey 2017, to Damage Assessments in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria 2018. Recently, Mr. Reid deployed to the grand Bahamas in 2019 for Hurricane Relief. He conducted Damage Assessments in Dorian 2019, which included inspections of buildings, and critical infrastructure such as; bridges, highways, roof inspections and powerlines. Reid is also Co-Founder, Vice President of Business Development and Drone Instructor for Drone Cadets, a program which exposes and trains drone technology to youths; teaching FAA rules and regulations, repair classes, coding and drone operations. It’s his fervent goal to expose this technology to all Black and Brown communities. Reid has been active in the United States National Guard for ten years. As part of the STEM Careers Program, which showcases the many STEM Military careers in the National Guard, Mr. Reid has been Certified in sUAS Thermography, EPA 608 certified, TWIC, and BOSEIT Offshore Emergency trained. What inspired the creation of Drone Cadets? In 2016 Reid, was a corrections officer at Rikers Island, a jail in New York City, working with incarcerated adolescents 16 to 18 years old. For 8 long years, he witnessed first-hand the plight of young men of color who became the casualties of an environment of poverty, crime, and violence. Many bright young men became ensnared in a life cycle of neglect, drugs, and crime; spending their time either on the street or behind bars. Either place could lead to dangerously grave consequences. He began to imagine a way out for these young people and decided he wanted to do something to break the chain. It was in August of the same year that the FAA created the first-ever Remote Pilot Certification* for civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs). Reid received his certification in September of 2016 and his drone career took off. He founded DroneTECH UAS and the concept of Drone Cadets was born. He began doing workshops, demonstrations, and hands-on drone flight training for kids. It wasn't long before he was invited into local schools and began helping incorporate drones into their STEM curriculums. Whenever kids asked about becoming a drone pilot, he talked to kids about the narrow road that they must follow to stay in school, learn and reach success in life. In 2017 Reid partnered with DroneBlocks to expand his curriculum to include coding. He also began his worldwide mission, bringing drones to hurricane disaster-ridden countries like the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Curacao. While there he worked to help provide relief, conduct infrastructure inspections, and he brought a needed distraction to children devastated by loss. He taught them to fly! In 2018 Reid joined forces with Grace Cantwell of Drone Wonders to teach children in underserved communities to fly drones responsibly. Ms. Cantwell's experience as a marketer and professional development trainer, bringing STEM tech tools to schools, taught her that there was no better tool than drones to engage students. It wasn't long before they realized that together, their unique knowledge, insights, and experience could create a richer, more effective Drone Cadets program than ever before. The "Tony & Grace Show" soon helped fuel the demand among students, parents, and administrators for further, more comprehensive drone training. New curriculum, missions, activities, and technology were added, and by the end of 2018 Drone Cadets had launched Level 1 and Level 2 followed by Level 3 in January of 2019. By this time Drone Cadets had taught more than a thousand students to code, fly and repair drones. Their unique method of training has been designed to build character by incorporating ethics, responsibility, safety, and teamwork. As students grew in age and knowledge, they were encouraged to pursue a career in drones and offered the option of completing their FAA Remote Pilot Certification through our alliance with Drone Lecture. How do you define success? The real success story is about the kids we’ve helped save. We’ve witnessed the power of drones to open doors and change lives. We’ve spoken to grateful moms. We’ve heard from teachers and counselors. Most importantly, we’ve seen the reluctant student suddenly drawn to the center of the activity. We’ve watched the shy student find the courage to lead the class. We’ve witnessed the angry, detached child calm down, think, focus and become engaged, with a learning mindset. Who knows how many lives could be saved by allowing kids to excel on a path that could lead to a career that provides a living wage, without college? What has Drone Cadets been working on recently? In early 2020, the new Drone Cadets partnership was launched to bring scalable drone education to schools, after-school programs, and underserved youth. The onset of COVID-19 accelerated our plans to Go Virtual, and DroneCadets.online was born to train students virtually, nationwide and around the world. On March 9, 2021 Drone Cadets programs became Accredited by STEM.org the longest continually-operating, privately-held STEM education research and credentialing organization in America. In April 2021, after teaching virtually for a year, Drone Cadets began teaching IRL (in real life) again, and it feels so good to be back! We're grateful for the time we had to develop new content, and the student response to our new material has been tremendous. Finally, what does Black History Month mean to you? Black history means teaching our youth. Educating and inspiring them to be a better version of yourself inspiring the next generation to be sustainable and successful, leaving an impact on a generation to continue to build our community. Tony Reid was nominated by Grace Cantwell: Reid saw the high recidivism rates among teens and was moved to make a difference. He founded Drone Cadets to help break the cycle and save lives by exposing underserved communities to drone technology. Today Drone Cadets has helped train thousands of students to become safe, responsible Drone pilots. He helps provide an alternative to the high cost of college through Drone training. As a role model he gives purpose and hope to black and brown students through his energy, service and compassion.

About Dr. Ronald E. McNair The late Dr. Ronald McNair was nationally recognized for his work in laser physics and was one of the thirty-five applicants selected by NASA from a pool of ten thousand. In 1984, McNair became the second African-American to make a flight into space as he was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger. He was a member of the crew when the Challenger exploded nine miles over the Atlantic shortly after takeoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 28, 1986. McNair was born on October 21st, 1950, in Lake City, South Carolina, and had to battle with racism and discrimination from a very early age. When he was nine he attempted to borrow books from his local public library, the Lake City Library, only to discover that ‘public’ meant that only whites could borrow books. This service was inaccessible to black people owing to the senseless Jim Crow laws of the time. Young McNair, however, politely insisted that he borrow the books. The police and his mother were called in to the library, but in the end he was allowed to leave with the books he desired. This sense of tenacity combined with his affinities to science and technology propelled him through his brief but very impactful life. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from North Carolina AT&T State University in 1971, and a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1976. He also received honorary doctorates from North Carolina AT&T State University, Morris College and the University of South Carolina. While studying at MIT, and at the Ecole D’ete Theorique de Physique in France, Dr. McNair did critical research into the development of hydrogen fluoride/deuterium fluoride (HF/DF) and high-pressure CO lasers. He became a staff physicist with Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, developing lasers for isotope separation and photochemistry among other areas of research and development. McNair was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate when he was 28 years old. A year later, in 1979, he qualified as a mission specialist astronaut on Space Shuttle flights and flew his first mission, STS 41-B, on February 4th, 1984. McNair was a music lover and an accomplished saxophonist. He worked with the French composer, Jean Michel Jarre on a piece of music for Jarre’s album Rendez-Vous. McNair, an adherent of the Baha’i Faith, was supposed to have been the first person to record a saxophone solo in space aboard the Challenger. He was also a martial arts enthusiast – the holder of a 5th degree Karate blackbelt and the winner of the AAU Karate Gold Medal (1976) and five regional Blackbelt championships. McNair has been the recipient of numerous post-humous honors. MIT, his alma mater has a McNair Building which houses the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research; the US Department of Education offers the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program; the McNair crater on the moon is named after him; and the Lake City Library was dedicated in 2011 as the Ronald McNair Life History Centre. Even though McNair's life was cut way too short, he exemplified excellence in everything that he touched. Coming from a low-income family did not stop him as he was determined to excel in academia and life. McNair was also a dedicated husband and the father of two children, Reginald Erwin and Joy Cheray. The Re.engineer community honors the life and legacy of Dr. Ronald E. McNair and may we always remember his faithfulness and commitment to showing us the possibilities in STEM. McNair was nominated by Jerome McQueen: McNair was one of the first Black astronauts to go in space. Also being a Black South Carolinian he blazed the trail for a whole generation of Blacks (including me) to study science and engineering especially from the rural Black areas where education was not the priority. His name is on the library that once did not allow him to check out a book.

About Dr. Patricia Bath Dr. Patricia Bath is an African American ophthalmologist, inventor, and academic scholar. Bath was also the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent for inventing the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986 which was less painful and precise. She has broken gender borders by being the first African American woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology and also being the first to be inducted into the prestigious National Inventors Hall of Fame. In the past year, 3.6 million people have treated their cataracts thanks to Bath's incredible contribution to the medical field. Bath grew up in Harlem, New York where prejudice was prominent; therefore, she couldn't go to medical school there due to tensions. She then moved to Los Angeles, California where she was also treated with injustice. Her office was located "in the basement next to the lab animals." She argued that it was not sexism that threw her off, but that it was just inappropriate and succeeded in getting acceptable office space. In 1968, Bath realized that in Harlem Hospital's Eye Clinic they did not perform any surgeries and this was a shock for her. She was the reason for bringing ophthalmic surgical services to the hospital by persuading her professors at Columbia to operate on blind patients for free. She then volunteered as an assistant surgeon. As a result of her efforts, she performed her first major eye operation at Harlem Hospital in 1970. In 1974, Bath was the first woman ophthalmologist to be appointed to the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine Jules Stein Eye Institute. She notes that when she became integrated into the department, she was offered an office. However, she refused it due to the inequality that came with the spot. Bath strongly believed in equality for all. In 1976, Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which established that "eyesight is a basic human right." Along with three of her other colleagues, they established a goal is to eradicate blindness by 2020. They hope to insure all children have all visual needs met, including eyeglasses; assist blind children to achieve their best by special educational resources; and establish the World Eye Institute for the research and treatment of blinding eye diseases, with clinic facilities open to the blind of all nations on an equal basis. In 1983, Bath was appointed Chair of the KING-DREW-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program, becoming the first woman in the US to head an ophthalmology residency program. While at UCLA, Bath had wanted to pursue research, though being denied the grants and resources by the National Institutes of Health and the National Eye Institute. It was then she had decided to look further for the best laboratories in the world, to support her plans for innovation in the world of ophthalmology. In 1986, Bath discovered and invented a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as the Laserphaco Probe. A year later, she presents her innovation at the national convention of Cataract Surgeons wherein she describes it as a device and methodology for removing the cataractous lens with laser pulsations called Laserphaco. In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA, which subsequently elected her the first woman on its honorary staff. She served as a professor of ophthalmology at Howard University's School of Medicine and as a professor of telemedicine and ophthalmology at St. Georges University ophthalmology training program. Being a strong advocate for telemedicine, she supported the innovation of virtual labs, as a part of the curriculum in ophthalmology residency training programs, to provide surgeons with more realistic experience, made possible by 3D imaging. In an article written by Bath, in the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, she had proven that with better training and supervision in residency programs, students were able to achieve better results in their surgeries, leading to greater visual acuity. Dr. Patricia Bath died on May 30, 2019, from complications of cancer at a University of California San Francisco medical center and her legacy still lives on through the barriers she broke though as a STEM Pioneer. The Re.engineer community honors the life and legacy of Dr. Patricia Bath and may we always remember her faithfulness and commitment to showing us the possibilities in STEM. Bath was nominated by Erika Jefferson, President & Founder of Black Women in Science & Engineering. BWISE played an integral role in supporting Bath to become the first African American woman to be inducted into the prestigious National Inventors Hall of Fame.