“FIRE: Foundation to Impact, Revitalize and Empower”
Carl B. Mack, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers, will speak at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Thursday, April 10.
Mack appears as part of the college’s School of Engineering Speaker Series. His talk, titled “FIRE: Foundation to Impact, Revitalize and Empower,” will be held at 7 p.m. in the Samuel P. “Pat” Black Conference Center in the college’s Research and Economic Development Center. Admission to the event is free, and parking will be available in the REDC garage off Jordan Road.
In March 2005, Mack was named the fourth executive director of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the largest student-managed organization in the world. Within two years the Society’s membership grew from a historic high of 12,842 members to 26,024 members, and secured a $1 million private gift, its largest to date. Under Mack’s leadership NSBE has become a vocal advocate for reversing the declining academic achievement of African-American children in public education.
Mack was born in Jackson, Miss., and earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering at Mississippi State University. He moved to Seattle, Wash., after graduation to work as an engineer for Metro-King County; in addition to coordinating the county’s award-winning Minority Engineering Internship Program he also served as president of the Seattle King County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Mack resides in Fort Washington, Md., with his wife, Jamiyo — a chemical engineer he met at NSBE’s Annual National Convention in 2000 — and their two sons.
The School of Engineering at Penn State Behrend offers three associate and seven baccalaureate degree programs, as well as one minor. Each program is accredited by either the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) or the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Students have access to 11 student chapters of honorary and professional organizations, such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The School of Engineering and the Sam and Irene Black School of Business are co-located in the college’s $30 million, 160,000-square-foot Research and Economic Development Center, making Penn State Behrend one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to house its engineering and business schools together in the same facility.