The data are clear: Diverse teams make better decisions 66 percent of the time, and if you include diversity of age and geography, diverse teams make better decisions 87 percent of the time. And yet, diversity in engineering itself is lacking. How do we make engineering more inclusive?

In this episode, host Wanda Sigur will speak with Megan Smith, the CEO and founder of Shift 7 and the third chief technology officer of the United States, and with Dr. Gilda Barabino, the president of the Olin College of Engineering, about how we can widen our networks and include everyone on a team. They will speak about the work required at all levels of engineering to make sure that everyone is included.

For more information about the National Academy of Engineering, please see our website.

Guest Bios

Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. CEO and founder of shift7, a company working collaboratively on systemic social, environmental and economic problems -- finding opportunities to scout and scale promising solutions and solution makers and engage proven tech-forward, open, shareable practices to drive direct impact, together. Smith served as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President from 2014-2017 -- working on issues from AI, data science and open source, to inclusive economic growth, entrepreneurship, structural inequalities, government tech innovation capacity, STEM/STEAM engagement, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. Smith spent over eleven years as vice president at Google leading new business development including acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, Picasa, she led Google.org, co-created WomenTechmakers, and SolveforX. Earlier she was PlanetOut CEO, at General Magic where she worked on early smart phones, and Apple Japan. Board member of MIT, Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028, Think of Us; Co-founder of the Malala Fund and UN Solutions Summit; Algorithmic Justice League advisor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Gilda A. Barabino is the second president of Olin College of Engineering. She served as Dean of the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York and held appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering as well as at the City University of New York School of Medicine. Dr. Barabino has also held academic and administrative appointments at Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and Northeastern University. At Georgia Tech, she served as the inaugural vice provost for academic diversity, and at Northeastern, she served as vice provost for undergraduate education. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Biomedical Engineering Society. She is Board Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest interdisciplinary scientific society.

Good engineers know that nothing gets done without a team. The best teams are those with diverse points of view, working toward the same goal. But not every group of people is a team. What makes a team truly inclusive and successful?

In this episode, host Wanda Sigur will speak with Dr. Latonia Harris, senior director at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson, and Dr. Susan Fiske, head of the intergroup relations, social cognition and social neuroscience lab at Princeton University. They’ll talk about how to make a team truly work together, to synergize, and to make sure that the team’s results don’t perpetuate racial and gender bias.

For more information about the National Academy of Engineering, please see our website.

Every successful engineer has had at least one mentor that has guided them in their careers. Most have had several mentors they credit with their success. How do we foster those mentoring relationships to promote inclusion?

In this episode, host Wanda Sigur will speak with Dr. Angela Byars-Winston, professor of internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Dr. Percy Pierre, a professor of computer and electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, about their mentoring experiences, and how to encourage mentors and mentees alike in engineering. Good mentorship opens up opportunities for the mentee, and increases achievement, retention and career commitment. If it’s built into academic and professional systems, it can do a lot to increase equity in engineering.

For more information about the National Academy of Engineering, please see our website.

Guest Bios

Dr. Angela Byars-Winston is a tenured faculty member in the Division of General Internal Medicine within the Department of Medicine. She is also the inaugural Chair of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Diversity Science, associate director in the Collaborative Center for Health Equity, and faculty lead in the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research. In 2011, Dr. Byars-Winston was selected as a Champion of Change by the White House through President Obama's Winning the Future initiative for her research efforts to diversify science fields. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Innovation in Mentorship Research award from the Association of Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Byars-Winston chaired the National Academies of Sciences’ 2019 consensus study report, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM. She is an elected Fellow in the American Psychological Association and is currently an appointed member of the NIH National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council.

Dr. Percy Pierre is an Adjunct Professor in the Clark School and Glenn L. Martin Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Pierre has over 50 years of experience in academic administration and the administration of military research and development. His service in academic administration includes Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at Michigan State University, President of Prairie View A&M University near Houston Texas, and Dean of Engineering at Howard University in Washington DC. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame and the Board of Trustees of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. His service in military R&D administration includes service as Acting Secretary of the Army in 1981, as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition, and as a researcher at the RAND Corporation. Pierre is recognized as the first African American to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering. Pierre was elected to National Academy of Engineering membership in 2009.