Achieving equity in engineering means having a team that includes everyone. Where do you find that team? It’s not longer time to think about an engineering pipeline. We need to think of pathways instead. 

In this episode, host Wanda Sigur will speak with Lieutenant General Tom Bostick, a strategic advisor at Gingo Bioworks and the 53rd Chief of Engineering of the United State Army and Commanding General for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Dr. Earl Lewis, professor of history at the University of Michigan. They will speak about the history of people of color in engineering, the pathways of those people into STEM professions, and how we can join those pathways to create a more inclusive future. 

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

Guest Bios

Earl Lewis is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of history, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy and director of the Center for Social Solutions at the University of Michigan. From March 2013-2018, he served as President of The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation. A noted author and esteemed social historian, he is past President of the Organization of American Historians. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008) and the American Academy of Political & Social Sciences (2022), he is the recipient of

twelve honorary degrees, and the National Humanities Medal (2023). Lewis has held faculty and administrative appointments at Michigan (1989-2004) and the University of California, Berkeley (1984-89). From 2004-2012, he served as Emory University’s Provost and Executive

Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of History and African American Studies. 

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Thomas P. Bostick serves as a Strategic Advisor at Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA). Previously, he was the Chief Operating Officer and President, Intrexon Bioengineering (NASDAQ: XON). He was the 53rd Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bostick helped lead the nation’s response to Superstorm Sandy. He was the Army’s Director of Personnel, and previously, the Commanding General of U.S. Army Recruiting Command. He deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During 9/11, he was the senior watch officer in the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center on the Joint Staff where he controlled the keys to the nation’s nuclear codes. He was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at West Point. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Bostick is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, holds Master of Science Degrees in both Civil and Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, an MBA from Oxford University, and a PhD in Systems Engineering from George Washington University where he is a member of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Hall of Fame.

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.