February 1, 2018
Woman of Power Alicia Boler Davis Named Black Engineer of the Year
Along with 40 other honorees, General Motor’s Alicia Boler Davis, will be celebrated as the Black Engineer of the Year next weekend by US Black Engineer (USBE) magazine at its annual BEYA STEM Conference in Washington, DC.
The award will make Boler-Davis the sixth woman recipient of the award in the scientific and technical magazine’s 32-year history.
Her historic rise through the ranks at GM has been well chronicled and celebrated since she joined the company in 1994—serving in various engineering and manufacturing leadership positions.
She had been with the company for a couple years when she became fascinated by assembly plants’ complexity and challenges, Davis told The Detroit Free Press.
“No one said ‘We don’t have women running our manufacturing plants,’ even though at the time, we didn’t,” she said. “I said, ‘You know what? I think I want to run this place. At the time, it wasn’t like I saw women doing it. I just felt like it could happen.”
She said she mentioned it to her manager at the time, he made some phone calls and the rest was history.
History was what she made when she became the first African American female plant manager in 2007. She went on to serve as GM’s vehicle line director and vehicle chief engineer for small cars, and plant manager for Lansing’s Consolidated Operations and Arlington Assembly. Her efforts helped the automotive giant earn top spot among major automakers with the best quality, according to J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Initial Quality Study, which measures quality problems reported during the first 90 days of ownership.
“I was the first African American woman to run a GM assembly plant, and it was no big deal. It didn’t feel like something odd,” Boler-Davis told The Detroit Free Press. “I’d had the (right) assignments and experiences. I had demonstrated my ability to get things done, work with a team, and work with the union.”
She received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
“Throughout my career, I was pushed to try new things—things that I hadn’t done before, and things that I couldn’t have imagined doing,” Davis said when she was honored with the 2016 Corporate Executive of the Year at the 2016 Trumpet Awards. “I truly believe that each of us can put our talents to use to change the world if we are willing to be bold, to take risks, and to write the books that need to be written.”
Davis is also a member of the Northwestern University McCormick Advisory Council, a board trustee of the Care House of Oakland County, a member of the OnStar/Shanghai Board of Directors, and Executive Liaison for the GM WOMEN leadership board.
The 2018 BEYA nominees are:
Black Engineer of the Year
Mrs. Alicia Boler Davis
Executive Vice President, Global Manufacturing
General Motors
Dave Barclay Affirmative Action
Mr. Darryl Farrow
Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion
The Boeing Company
Dave Barclay Affirmative Action
Mr. Drew Valentine
Vice President, People & Culture
IBM
Career Achievement – Government
Mr. Timothy Bridges
Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection
U.S. Air Force
Career Achievement – Industry
Dr. Charles Johnson-Bey
Cyber Solutions Engineering and Technology Director
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Community Service – Industry
Mr. Steven Brown
President of Dreams, Imagination & Gift Development Program (DIG)
Gas Turbine Controls Engineer
General Electric
The Dean’s Award
Mr. Derek McGowan
Diversity Outreach Program Manager
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Education Leadership – K-12 Promotion of Education
Ms. Tokiwa Smith
Executive Director
Science, Education, Mathematics Link Inc.
Education Leadership – K-12 Promotion of Education
Mr. Gregory Chappelle
Michigan DoD STEM Coordinator and HBCU/MI Liaison Officer
U.S. Army TARDEC
Educational Leadership – College-Level Promotion of Education
Dr. Terri Norton
Associate Professor
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Most Promising Engineer – Government
Captain Jason Fischbach
Lead Engineer – Power, Space, and Cooling
U.S. Air Force
Most Promising Engineer – Government
Ms. LaAndrea McDonald
BMDS Test Data Manager
Missile Defense Agency
Most Promising Engineer – Industry
Mr. Hamza Syed
Lead Multi-Discipline Systems Engineer
The MITRE Corporation
Most Promising Engineer – Industry
Ms. Chandria Poole
Deputy Program Manager
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Outstanding Technical Contribution – Government
Mr. Reginald Williams
THAAD Post-Production and Sustainment Lead
Missile Defense Agency
Outstanding Technical Contribution – Industry
Mr. Kent Etienne
Technical Lead Engineer, Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
The Boeing Company
Outstanding Technical Contribution – Industry
Mrs. Arissa Hodges
Group Leader/Lead Communications Engineer
The MITRE Corporation
Professional Achievement – Government
Mr. Byron Williams
Programs and Project management Branch Chief
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Professional Achievement – Industry
Mrs. Kathryn Hamilton
Engineering Program Manager
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Professional Achievement – Industry
Mr. Eric Biribuze
Product Line Lead
Corning Incorporated
Research Leadership
Mr. Andrew Adams
Acting Assistant Section Supervisor
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Senior Technology Fellow
Dr. Jon Goldsby
Materials Research Engineer
NASA Glenn Research Center
Senior Technology Fellow
Mr. Nathan Brooks
Associate Technical Fellow, Technical Lead Engineer
The Boeing Company
Student Leadership – Undergraduate Level
Mr. David Hill
Worldwide Sales Engineer Intern
Cisco Systems
Student Leadership – Undergraduate Level
Mr. Bright Tsagli
College Assistant
Bronx Community College
Technical Sales and Marketing
Mr. Karoom Brown
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Strategy
Leidos
The 2018 BEYA Gala will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC on Saturday, Feb. 10.