NSBE - Convention 2020 - 22

NSBE Executive Director Karl Reid Appointed to
National Academies Committee on Women in Tech
By Eric Addison
Society as a leader in addressing the problem of underrepresentation of women in engineering. In October,
that leadership was bolstered by the appointment of
NSBE Executive Director Karl W. Reid, Ed.D., to a highprofile committee of the National Academies of Science,
Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). The Committee on
Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women of Color
in Tech - overseen by NASEM's Committee on Women in
Science, Engineering and Medicine - is examining strategies to increase gender diversity and equity in technical
fields. The committee has taken on a broad range of tasks
to confront the problem, including, among others, understanding and articulating steps that academic institutions,
employers and individuals can take to boost the retention, recruitment and advancement of women of color
in tech, and empowering academic institutions, employers, policymakers, federal agencies and individuals with
evidence-based practices to improve equity and diversity
in technology. At the end of its work, which runs through
Jan. 31, 2021, the committee will issue a consensus report
informed by a series of four regional workshops. The first
workshop was held in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5.
Dr. Reid says his NASEM committee appointment
Karl W. Reid, Ed.D.
"reflects NSBE's collective good work to change the face
of engineering and technology in the U.S. Our nation has
omen in the U.S. have overcome gender discriminadone incredible things through engineering, and women and
tion to make great gains in many science, technology,
minorities are poised to make American engineering even
engineering and math (STEM) fields during the past
better," says Dr. Reid. "I expect our committee's work to greatly
two decades, but their lack of progress in engineering
facilitate that transformation."
and computer science remains problematic. According to reNSBE National Chair Jocelyn Jackson, the Society's topports from the National Science Foundation and the American
ranking officer, sees the NASEM committee's work as vital to
Society for Engineering Education, women's share of engineerNSBE's mission and the achievement of NSBE's "10K Goal,"

"Our nation has done incredible things through engineering, and women and minorities
are poised to make American engineering even better." - Dr. Karl Reid
ing bachelor's degrees has increased only slightly, from 18 percent to 22 percent, over the past 20 years. In computer science,
the number actually declined, from 27 percent in 1997 to 19
percent in 2016. Black or African-American women in the U.S.
are earning a greater percentage of the engineering bachelor's
degrees within their racial or ethnic group than are other
women (more than 25 percent) but still received less than 1.2
percent of all engineering baccalaureates conferred in 2018.
The gender equity initiatives of the National Society of Black
Engineers' (NSBE's) National Executive Board, and NSBE's
foundational work with the 50K Coalition, have established the
22 * NSBE MAGAZINE * CONVENTION 2020

which is to lead the U.S. to graduate 10,000 new Black
Engineers annually, by 2025.
"Making the field of engineering more inclusive of women is
the right thing to do, but this is more than a moral and ethical
issue," says Jackson, who is a mechanical engineering graduate
of Iowa State University and a doctoral student in engineering
education research at the University of Michigan. "We can't
achieve our 10K Goal with the gender balance we have now.
We have to greatly increase the number of Black women earning technical degrees to gain parity with Black men," she says.
"We have to rise together." ■
www.nsbe.org

http://www.nsbe.org

NSBE - Convention 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE - Convention 2020