Dr. Norman Fortenberry: A Pioneer in Engineering Education

Fortenberry Engineers Change Through ASEE

June 14, 2015

Diverse Issues In Higher Education

Dr. Norman Fortenberry, is Executive Director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). ASEE is an international society of individual, institutional, and corporate members founded in 1893 and committed to promoting global excellence in engineering and engineering technology instruction, research, public service, professional practice, and societal awareness.

Dr. Fortenberry is an MIT Alumnus receiving the following three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a specialty in applied mechanics and design.

Sc.D., Mechanical Engineering (Course II)

1984 – 1991

S.M., Mechanical Engineering (Course II)

1983 – 1984

S.B., Mechanical Engineering (Course II)

1979 – 1983

Prior to his current responsibilities, Dr. Fortenberry is founding Director of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). At NAE he was responsible for designing and developing the programs, organizational linkages, and personnel required to implement an ambitious new effort to achieve and maintain excellence in engineering education.

Prior to joining NAE in October, 2002, Dr. Fortenberry held managerial positions within the National ScienceFoundation (NSF) Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) including Senior Advisor and Division Director. In these positions, he was responsible for managing more than 40 professional and administrative staff members as well as program budgets in excess of $300 million. Dr. Fortenberry's programmatic responsibilities included undergraduate education as well as broadening access and participation in science and engineering at all levels by underrepresented populations and institutions.

Dr. Fortenberry served as Executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (The GEM Consortium) and was Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Director of Minority Engineering programs at Florida A&M University/Florida State University College of Engineering in Tallahassee, Florida. He attended MIT and was awarded the S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. degrees, all in mechanical engineering, with a specialty in applied mechanics and design.

Biography extract from Pathways To Science, March 2013, All Rights Reserved

Celebrating MIT Capital Givers

As we continue with a new chapter of giving through the MIT Capital Fund, The Blacks at MIT History Project would like to thank those who have supported us with their generous gifts in the past, present, and future.  A new initiative begins with the MIT Crowdfund site (through the end of June 2015) in contributing your financial support to this ongoing research project.  "The Grid" is one of a series of image "mosaics" denoting our capital contributing supporters.

Thank You
The Blacks at MIT History Project Team

The GRID

...an image mosaic series

Research Narrative

The Blacks at MIT History Project is a continuous research effort and collaborative endeavor sponsored by the MIT Office of the Provost. The project is archiving the historical achievements and influence that students, staff, faculty, and management have accomplished for MIT in their ongoing careers.

The Blacks at MIT History Project mission is to research, identify, and produce scholarly curatorial content on the black experience at MIT since opening its doors in 1865. This Project was founded and is directed by Dr. Clarence G. Williams, Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies & Planning Emeritus and Former Special Assistant to the President, MIT. He is an innovator in higher education for four decades and a recipient of a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Counseling Psychology.

Dr. Williams joined the administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972 as Assistant Dean of the Graduate School and was named Special Assistant to the President and Chancellor for Minority Affairs in 1974. From 1980-1982, he served as Acting Director of the Office of Minority Education, and from 1984-1997, he assumed additional responsibilities as Assistant Equal Opportunity Officer, along with a broader scope of the Special Assistant position, to serve the MIT community as an ombudsperson. From 1992 until his status changed to emeritus in 2004, he taught race relations and diversity courses in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He is serving, since 1995, as the Founder and Director of the Blacks at MIT History Project.

The project’s continuing objective is to place the black experience at MIT in its full and appropriate context, by researching and disseminating a varied set of materials. It is also exposing a larger community of interests — both inside and outside MIT — to this rich and historically significant legacy. We are currently conducting oral history video interviews with black tenured faculty at MIT. The videos explore each faculty member’s passion for what he or she does, involving their professional fields, their research and teaching, and their personal journey. How did they become who they are? What was the path that led them to MIT? The videos will be part of a web-based history, with multimedia access by the public including particular outreach to young people. Additionally, the project is producing audio and image narratives reflecting on the continuing legacy of the this unique and important population within the MIT community experience.

The current Blacks at MIT History Project website is in the final stages of a major update, yet it can still be accessed. This blog highlights ongoing efforts regarding the project's initiatives.

The Blacks at MIT History Project Team

A Pioneering Student in the 20th Century

Gloria Green

Graduating from Washington, DC's prestigious Dunbar High School in 1949, Gloria Green was on the path to take an unprecedented challenge.  Gloria became the second black woman to attend MIT since1905 when Marie Turner enrolled, Course IV (Architecture). Gloria's academic aspiration was also in pursuit of becoming a professional architect. After the first semester, plans for an alternative academic route became a reality. She attended a junior college, reapplied to MIT and then attended for one year. Her pioneering spirit at MIT within the class of 1954 was remarkable. The class produced a future MIT President and Chairman of the Corporation, Dr. Paul E. Gray. Dr. Gray and Gloria Green freshmen class yearbook pictures were posted side by side alphabetically. It was a special time for Gloria during that initial year in 1949, and also a historic moment as well for MIT. Gloria later married, raised a family and completed an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).

Stamp Honors MIT's First Black Graduate

The 38th stamp in the United States Postal Service "Black Heritage" series honors architect and educator Robert Robinson Taylor of the Class of 1892.

Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service

Nancy DuVergne Smith | MIT Alumni Association
February 12, 2015
Press Inquiries


The U.S. Postal Service honored one of MIT’s own today, issuing a stamp to honor architect and educator Robert Robinson Taylor. A member of the Class of 1892, Taylor was MIT’s first African-American graduate, and is believed to be the country’s first academically trained black architect.

Among other accomplishments, Taylor supervised the design and construction of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama — now Tuskegee University — while also overseeing the school’s programs in industrial education and the building trades.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif discussed Taylor’s contributions in remarks at today's dedication ceremony at the National Postal Museum in Washington.

“As we honor the legacy of Robert Taylor, today’s ceremony reminds us that he was a builder … not only of structures, but of communities … and an architect who designed not only a campus of national importance … but a more promising future for generations to come,” Reif said. “Robert Robinson Taylor truly represents the best of MIT.”

More about Robert Robinson Taylor and this Commemoration.

Robert Robinson Taylor

From 'Tech' to Tuskegee:

The Life of Robert Robinson Taylor
1868-1942

by Dr. Clarence G. Williams

Few blacks were part of the MIT community in its early years, even though founder William Barton Rogers had shown a keen interest in issues relating to race. In 1863, Rogers had praised blacks--particularly the bravery exhibited by black troops during the Civil War--and noted "the capacity of these people for knowledge and training."(1) The earliest evidence of blacks at MIT dates from the 1870s, more than a decade later, in photographs of service staff in the old drill hall and gymnasium on Boylston and Clarendon Streets in downtown Boston. "Jones' Lunch," a small cafeteria located at one end of the gym, was run by a black caterer named Jones, with the assistance of a small staff of black cooks, washers, and waiters. Evidently there were no black faculty and no black students at MIT at the time. The first black student to attend MIT appears to have been Robert Robinson Taylor, who enrolled in 1888.(2)Almost seventy more years elapsed before the first black faculty member--Joseph R. Applegate, a linguist--was hired in 1955.(3)

More about Robert Robinson Taylor at MIT Libraries.