On the new episode of the Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie podcast, the host and his guest, Dr. Carlotta Berry, an Electrical and Computer Engineering professor, provide a peek behind the curtain at the challenges faced by African American engineering professors working at predominantly white higher education institutions.   The engaging conversation between the two highly acclaimed engineering professors provides a fresh and earnest perspective of being Black in academia in the age of Black Lives Matters and Generation X, and the joys and pressures that come with it.    

Further, Dr. Mackie and Dr. Berry discuss the importance of Black representation in higher academia, specifically, the ways we can use modern tools, practices and support groups to normalize the representation of Black professors, educators and scientists, and provide diverse students with the support needed to thrive. 

On the new episode of the Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie podcast, the founder of STEM Global Action (SGA) and Dr. Joyce Baynes, a lifelong educator, discuss actionable options for helping children of color overcome barriers that impede their learning of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills and becoming STEM professionals.  In an engaging conversation, they noted that parents must be more engaged in their children’s education, teachers need improved professional development, K-12 students should have STEM activities outside the classroom and parents should be guiding their children towards summer programs that can provide additional STEM learning opportunities. 

Dr. Mackie and Dr. Baynes acknowledged these measures are necessary because of the discrimination still rampant today that stigmatizes girls and minorities. “In the 12th grade, I took calculus as well as physics. The first day I went to my physics class I looked at the teacher, he looked at me, and he said, ‘I don’t think you belong here,’” recalled Dr. Baynes.  Similarly, Dr. Mackie described being confronted by a professor in a college thermodynamic class. “Are you in the right place?” the Black student was asked.

 Dr. Baynes is a nonprofit executive, retired school superintendent and mathematics educator from Teaneck, New Jersey. Thank you for joining us!

Special Guest: Dr. Brian Williams, who is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence at Georgia State University.   Dr. Mackie and Dr. Williams warn  that  all students aren’t being adequately taught science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and are in danger of being left out of future jobs.  In an engaging conversation, Dr. Mackie and Dr. Williams raise concerns that while a 4th Industrial Revolution is spurring STEM jobs today and, in the future, not enough students of color are trained as the drivers and designers of the innovations. Instead, the two STEM education leaders said that too many students are on a path towards being the laborers, whose jobs may be threatened by automation and technology.