Janeen Uzzell Aims To Increase The Number Of Culturally Responsible Black Engineers Who Find Success Academically And Professionally – AfroTech
Janeen Uzzell recognized that she had a distinct path leading her to take on various leadership roles in technology, including empowering youth in the sector.
However, that path was also made possible by her parents, Jay and Kate, who always encouraged and supported her growing up, despite not being college graduates or having an understanding of engineering; they “invested everything they had” in her education, she said. She felt there were no limits to what she could accomplish.
“My siblings, we all have had great careers, but God had something uniquely different planned for my life, and watching it unfold has been just breathtaking and humbling,” she expressed.
Uzzell now has a career in tech spanning more than 30 years. She joked she has “been in tech longer than I haven’t been.” Uzzell brings experience from Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon division, which focuses on needles and sutures, according to her LinkedIn. After furthering her studies by earning an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, she was tasked with managing field engineers and running an $18 million P&L business at GE Healthcare, now known as GE Vernova, she told AFROTECH™.
One of the greatest victories of her time at the company, she shared, was her role as director of healthcare programs in Africa, particularly her involvement with Vscan, a handheld ultrasound product.
“Being an engineer and being a part of a process and a product that goes from concept to marketing, ideation, research, development, implementation, and then taking it into the field and actually watching people use it and watch it work and make money — there are not many engineers that get to go through that entire process … And the thing that people don’t know about how that all happened is that Black people made that happen.”
National Society of Black Engineers
After holding several leadership roles at GE, including Head of Women in Technology, Clark spent nearly three years at the Wikimedia Foundation. Today, she serves as CEO of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the organization that helped her earn a full-ride scholarship to NC A&T.
“When I had a chance to work for Wikipedia, it was access to information. And now at NSBE it’s access to talent and people, and that is what aligns with the mission that I’ve built for myself. And so I believe that my career is the platform that I’ve been given to do the work I’ve been called to do, and to do good,” she noted.
NSBE has nearly 25,000 active collegiate members and more than 700 chapters across the U.S., the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, among other countries, and served over 15,000 attendees at its annual convention.
Besides Uzzell, NSBE alums include Victor Glover, who made history as the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon, and Dr. Ayanna Howard, who was named president of Spelman College, as previously reported by AFROTECH™.
Founded in 1975, NSBE was guided by a mission to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who find success academically and professionally, while making a difference in their communities, according to its website. Uzzell noted that the mission stands, and all are welcome to join NSBE to benefit from its scholarships and conventions, and to utilize its resume portal and job search engine.
“There are no limits. And so we are a very diverse community, and some of our strongest diverse members, non-Black members, come from PWIs (predominantly white institutions). Because no matter where you are and no matter who you are, if you are someone that is other than the majority, then you need a community, and Black people are always the most welcoming,” Uzzell said. “And so we have people from white, Black, Indian, different faiths, different genders, all different identities that join NSBE because they find their tribe in our community, so we’re getting it right.”
SEEK Summer Camp
NSBE’s initiatives include the SEEK program, a Summer Engineering Experience for Kids, which includes an in-person camp at Houston’s BakerRipley Community Schools and a virtual camp in Washington, DC, serving fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. The corporate sponsors and individual donors support the free three-week camp, which has been running for 20 years.
Students are testing their critical thinking, mathematics, and reading skills, learning about coding, and even using AI to fly drones, Uzzell told AFROTECH™. The goal is to ensure it helps increase the number of engineers in the global market who are equipped to solve the world’s most complex challenges, she said. So students will also present their solutions to real-world engineering challenges.
“They also learn that failing is a part of building, and building is a part of thinking, and that’s what engineering education really is,” she said.
Beyond her work at NSBE, Uzzell serves on Maryland’s aerospace and tech commission for Governor Wes Moore.
