February is a big month for education and celebration! In this article, we will be highlighting the stories of African Americans in tech-related careers that have inspired us. Keep reading to learn more!

Lewis Latimer (1848-1928)

Our first Career Pathways Spotlight for Black History Month + Career and Tech Education (CTE) Month is taking us back more than a century to explore the career path of Mr. Lewis Latimer. Mr. Latimer was a U.S. Navy Veteran who taught himself how to draft, which is drawing technical diagrams, after his service in the U.S. Civil War. Latimer drafted by hand with pen, paper, and rulers, but modern drafters use CAD (computer-aided design) technology to create very precise drawings of parts or prototypes. Mr. Latimer's persistence and practice led him to work with some of the greatest inventors in history, helping develop carbon filaments for light bulbs which changed the electricity industry forever. 

Image alt text: After serving in the United States Navy, Lewis Latimer taught himself the skill of drafting (technical drawing), which led to his collaboration with Hiram Maxim and Thomas Edison at the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, ultimately inventing a method of producing light bulbs with carbon filaments that made them more practical and affordable for the public. Additionally, he drafted the first telephone drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's patent application.

Valerie Thomas (b.1943)

Our next Career Pathways Spotlight is on Valerie Thomas, who was discouraged from studying technology as a girl, but she didn't give up! And it's a good thing, too, because her career path took her from entry level data analysis at NASA to leading one of the most influential, longest-running US Space programs in history -- the Landsat program. The Landsat program gives continuous feedback about the Earth from space, including data on agriculture, climate, urbanization, drought, wildfire, biomass, and a whole host of other natural resource changes, and Valerie Thomas helped make it all possible! Later in her career, inspired by a carnival act, she also invented one of the very first 3D technologies: the Illusion Transmitter, which creates 3-dimensional renderings from 2-dimensional images and is still in use today.

Image alt text: Valerie L. Thomas took an interest in technology as a child after checking out a book from the library called "The Boy's First Book on Electronics." After graduating with high marks in math, she began working for NASA as a data analyst, eventually overseeing the Landsat Program and  the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment. In 1980, she designed the first 3D technology called the Illusion Transmitter which NASA still uses to this day.

Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961)

For our third Career Pathways Spotlight, we step back a little farther in history again to the World Wars, where we find Mr. Frederick McKinley Jones, who before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an electrician, was an auto mechanic and amateur race-car driver and builder! In France in World War I, it was said that Jones attached skis to his vehicle as a makeshift snowmobile to help transport medics and doctors during blizzards, but his biggest influence was not in getting the trucks out of the ice, but in getting the ice INTO the trucks! 

After his military service, he returned home and dabbled in the cinema industry, inventing parts for film reels that made it possible to sync audio and video, paving the way for "talking pictures." During that time he taught himself HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) skills and invented the first portable refrigeration device that could be installed onto trucks and boats. His refrigerated trucks were used during WWII to transport food for troops and blood for transfusions, saving countless lives, and after the war, Jones's refrigerated trucks revolutionized the food and grocery industry. The whole frozen food industry has this mechanic to thank!

Image alt text: Frederick McKinley Jones began his career in tech as an auto mechanic. In World War I, he served in the US Army as an electrician. After that, he began inventing and teaching himself about HVAC systems. During WWII, Jones developed portable refrigeration units so that the US military could transport food and blood to troops with air conditioned trucks and ships, which saved many lives and ultimately resulted in a complete transformation of the grocery and shipping industries.

Patricia Bath (1942-2019)

Our next Career Pathways Spotlight takes us to the health sciences industry with Dr. Patricia Bath: ophthalmologist, inventor, researcher, and humanitarian. Dr. Bath started her career path in medical science as a teenager, when she volunteered for a cancer and nutrition study at Harlem Hospital and discovered a mathematical equation to predict cancer cell growth. After high school, she attended medical school and became the first African American to complete an ophthalmology residency. Back at Harlem Hospital, Dr. Bath collected data on blind patients and was the first to publish research acknowledging that black Americans experienced preventative blindness at a many times higher rate than white Americans.

As a result of her research, Dr. Bath dedicated her life and career to preventing blindness and advocating for eye care in communities who were lacking it, pioneering techniques like telemedicine and "community ophthalmology" so that people in rural or poor urban areas could have access to health education and free clinics. In 1986, she invented the Laserphaco Probe, a device that improved on the use of lasers to remove cataracts, becoming the first African American woman to hold a patent for a medical device. Dr. Bath's invention helped restore sight for patients who had been blind for decades.

Image alt text: Dr. Patricia Bath got her first taste of health science in high school when she volunteered for a cancer study with Harlem Hospital. Later she became the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and was best known for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe, which improved the safety of cataract surgery, making Dr. Bath the first black woman to ever hold a medical patent in the US. Dr. Bath's device helped restore the sight of people who had been blind for more than 30 years. She dedicated her entire career to preventing and treating blindness.

James E. West (b.1931)

For our next Career Pathways Spotlight, we dive into the world of audio and communications technology with Dr. James E. West. As a boy, Dr. West was fascinated with radios, taking them apart and putting them back together again with his father. As a young adult, he studied science and worked during the summer as an intern with Bell Laboratories in the Acoustics Research Department. After graduation, he was hired full time at Bell Labs where he developed an inexpensive, highly sensitive, compact microphone. Today 90% of all modern microphones are based on his technology. 

After retiring from Bell, Dr. West became a professor at Johns Hopkins where he has encouraged young people to seek careers in science, engineering, technology, and math. Over his career, he developed more than 250 patented inventions.

Image alt text: Dr. James West started his career path in electrical engineering by taking apart and putting back together old radios as a teenager. Now he holds more than 250 patents, including the one for his most famous invention: the foil electret microphone. Today, this type of condenser microphone is used in 90% of all audio transmitting devices, including the mics in phones, computers, and hearing aids! Additionally, Dr. West is a powerful advocate for diversity In STEM education.

Ursula M. Burns (b.1958)

What happens when you cross a passion for mechanics with a talent for business administration? You get a powerhouse of a career pathway, that's what! Ursula M. Burns, chairwoman of VEON and former CEO of Xerox, first learned about business sense and entrepreneurial grit from her single mother, who coordinated an in-home childcare center, laundry service, and house-cleaning business in order to put her daughter into private school. 

After going to college for mechanical engineering at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, she took an internship with Xerox and started her climb to the top, working many jobs in the company along the way before becoming the first African American woman to be named CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. Under her leadership, Xerox was transformed from a printer company to a technology services giant. Currently, she serves on several boards (including Uber) and works with different government and private organizations to increase STEM education through legislative advocacy. 

Image alt text: As a young woman, Ursula Burns excelled in math, so she went on to study mechanical engineering in college, and to help pay her tuition, she applied for an internship with Xerox. Years later, she worked her way from product development to administrative assistant to Senior Vice President to CEO, becoming the first African American woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She is credited with saving Xerox from bankruptcy by investing in new partnerships and technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud tech.

Mark E. Dean (b.1957)

Next up, electrical engineering and computer science giant: Dr. Mark Dean. Dr. Dean sparked an interest in engineering as a teenager when he and his father built a tractor from scratch! But instead of mechanical engineering, Dean decided to go in the direction of electrical engineering and computer science. After school, he began working for IBM and developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, which is not a bus like the yellow school variety. Imagine the ISA bus as the vehicle for moving data from external devices like monitors, disk drives, and printers to a computer and back again. You've heard of a USB charger? Well, USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and the USB system is the evolution of Dean's and his colleagues' technology. 

Later on, Dr. Dean helped develop the color PC monitor, and he ended up holding three of the original nine patents for the first IBM personal computer. Then in 1999, he and his team created the first one gigahertz computer processor chip, which could perform a billion calculations per second. This revolutionized computing. Dr. Dean went on to secure more than 20 patents and become the first African American to be named as an IBM Fellow. He is currently teaching for the University of Tennessee.

Image alt text: Dr. Mark Dean's first adventure into technology was building a tractor from scrap parts with his father. He later went to school for electrical engineering and computer science, landed a job with IBM (before It was cool), and eventually held 3 of the original 9 patents for the first Personal Computer (PC). His work led to the development of external device integration to PCs (e.g. being able to connect to a printer), color PC monitors, and the first gigahertz chip. He's now a professor and IBM Fellow.

Jessica O. Matthews (b.1988)

Our last Career Pathways Spotlight is certainly not the least! As a child, Jessica Matthews loved to tinker with things. By age 19 she was enrolled in an engineering class, where she invented a soccer ball that generates and stores energy while being kicked. A half hour of play would yield three hours of light from an LED lamp. Next she invented PULSE - a jump rope that generates and stores energy.  Matthews founded Unchartered Power to explore motion-based renewable energy, landing her a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. From floor panels, speedbumps, and sidewalks, to subway turnstiles, strollers, and shopping carts, Unchartered Power is exploring ways to harvest clean, renewable energy from the moving pieces of our everyday lives.

And Matthews isn't stopping there. In 2016, she founded a non-profit called The Harlem Tech Fund, which aims to support startups and offers STEM, career, and technology training to 10,000+ Harlem residents. On their homepage, under the Vision heading, it reads: The tools of the New Harlem Renaissance will be the laptop, the soldering iron, and the 3D printer. That's what I call Black History in the making!

Image alt text: During her third year of college, Jessica Matthews invented Soccket: a soccer ball that stores energy as it's kicked. Thirty minutes of play with the ball generates enough electricity to power an LED light for three hours so that kids in areas with frequent blackouts would have access to light for reading. Matthews went on to found a company called Uncharted Power which specializes in designing motion-based, off-grid renewable energy with everyday objects like jump ropes and shopping carts.

We hope you enjoyed and were inspired by these career pathways spotlights focused on Black History Month and Career and Tech Education month. If you’d like to download a presentation slide deck of all the stories in this article, enter your email below for your free download.