Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlotta Berry
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a professor and endowed chair in electrical and computer engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. There are so few Black women engineering professors in the United States so people often want to know my story and my journey to STEM. I started out as a young girl who played with her dolls and wanted to be a school teacher. It was only after mentors who saw my potential and encouraged me to move to a magnet school and consider engineering as a major that got me here. Please learn more about my story from this excerpt from my website blog.
he reason Diversity In STEM is so important is because I think about how far I came with no Black Engineering or Women Engineering role models. Even today, I can only name maybe ten high profile Black women engineering role models, let me try: Ayanna Howard, Mae Jemison, Gilda Barabino, Kimberly Bryant, Jeanette Epps, Mary Jackson, Aprille J. Ericsson-Jackson, Ursula Burns, Christine Darden, Yvonne Clark, and Paula Hammond. Whoo hoo! I made ten, eleven actually.
Now I definitely could name more if I named more of my contemporaries but that is a blog post for another day.
Now just imagine if I had seen 5 of me as a student. I could have reached even higher heights. I probably would not have gotten such a late start (PhD at 33). This is why I push so hard to #AmplifyBlackSTEM, #PromoteBlackSTEM, #NormalizeBlackSTEM. It is because it is really hard to be what you cannot see. It is not impossible but it is hard. Also, there are so few of us that we are spread thin trying to do our job, research, teaching, professional development and service. If we can build community and critical mass then there would be more of us to be advocates, mentors and role models. This is why the work of #BlackInEngineering, #BlackInRobotics, #BlackInComputing, and #BlackInX is so important. We won’t be done until, there are so many Black and Brown people in engineering that it is no longer an anomaly to see us. We are done when we are no longer considered “underrepresented”, historically excluded, marginalized or minoritized.
Carlotta Berry in Georgia Tech ID card in 1993
Georgia Tech ID Card, 1993
I chose to become an engineering professor as an engineering student with a 2.5 GPA. This is because I wanted the profession to look like the world. I wanted engineering to look, fun, engaging, personable, people centered and exciting because it is. I took the lemons of my engineering school experience and chose to make lemonade. The saying that your attitude will affect your altitude, is so true. There were several decision points in my life where I could have gone either direction. This was one of about five of them. I will save the others for another blog post. If I really knew then how hard this journey would be, that naïve 22 year old may have chosen another direction.
There is a MLK quote that says, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase”. This is what I did, I stepped out on faith.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the biggest challenges have been the fact that some people have never seen Black women in these arenas and are not sure how to treat them. This leads to some to use their bias, question your credentials, presume you are incompetent which means I have experienced sexism, racism and ageism or maybe all of the above at different points in my academic and professional journey. This has come from students on course evaluations, colleagues when giving me advice, and bosses when deciding whether I was doing a good job or not.
As you know, we’re big fans of NoireSTEMinist Educational Consulting, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I launched my business NoireSTEMinist Educational Consulting, LLC in 2021 with the mission to diversify STEM by brining my STEM to the streets. I use robotics, books, social media content, workshops, videos and more to bring STEM to a more diverse community in order to unveil the mysteries and encourage them to see themselves in these fields.
What are your plans for the future?
I am looking forward to continue to grow as a professor entrepreneur by using my teaching, research, service and work as a consultant to introduce more people to STEM by educating them about Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Pricing:
- 20.00 for signed romance novels
- $16 for signed childrens books
- $90 for robotics kits
- Varies prices for AI art posters and clothing
- $1000+ for robotics workshops and speaking engagements
Contact Info:
- Website: https://NoireSTEMinist.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/noiresteminist
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoireSTEMinist
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/noiresteminist
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/carlottaberry
- Other: https://CarlottaArdell.com
Image Credits
Please credit these photos as “Photo courtesy of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology/Bryan Cantwell.”