Top 24 for 2024
What is your greatest achievement in your career?
"Completing a PhD during a pandemic stands as my greatest career achievement. Despite the challenges of a PhD and the limited black representation at this level, I navigated the challenges to successfully submit and defend my thesis. This journey taught me to believe in myself and reinforced that nothing is unattainable if I put my mind to it. Another significant achievement is co-founding an initiative with my sister to support individuals throughout their STEM journey, from primary school to working professionals. We provide the representation we lacked when starting out, educating on STEM careers and showcasing black women engineers and professionals in other STEM fields. In essence, we have become the role models we wished we had seen and had when we were younger."
Who or what inspires you in your work?
“My desire to contribute to human knowledge is what inspires me everyday. There is so many unanswered questions and problems to solve in the world of science and particularly health which is my interest, I want to part of that solution and contribute to saving lives. In my work with SiSTEM, I’m inspired by the very people we are helping. A young girl who’s interest is sparked by one of our science demonstrations, a university who decides she wants to continue her STEM course because she can now see positive STEM role models that look like her. All these encourages me to keep going and to keep sharing my story to inspire the next generation. I want to help as many people as possible to get into STEM and more importantly stay in STEM.”
Please provide one piece of advice for future global ethnic-majority engineers.
“Don’t give up! Especially when you don’t see others who look like you around you or if someone tells you engineering is not for you. Sometimes our career journey is not as smooth sailing as we imagine but it will work out in the end and sometimes we are re-directed to something even better.”