Leaders in Engineering Diversity By Frank McCoy
Keith Humphrey, ‘93, succeeded Darnell Fisher, ‘03, as national chair of NSBE Professionals, a component of the National Society of Black Engineers.
IT ISN’T POSSIBLE to engineer a device or write a computer program that controls luck. However, Morgan’s engineering and computer science programs, and the University’s academic community at large, did provide a path that led two alumni to leadership in the 29,000-member National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). NSBE, founded in 1975, now has hundreds of chapters in the U.S. and abroad. This past March, at the organization’s Annual Convention in Indianapolis, Keith Humphrey, Morgan Class of 1993, was sworn in as NSBE’s national Alumni Extension chair, succeeding Darnell Fisher, ‘03, who held that post during the previous year. On Aug. 1, 2013, NSBE’s Alumni Extension took on the more descriptive name “NSBE Professionals.” Humphrey is a database engineer at Cedar Document Technologies, in Atlanta. As a child, he was fascinated with science and technology and later enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park with a desire to become a meteorologist. He then transferred to Morgan to attend a smaller but competitive school, and decided to major in computer science. That decision would be a perfect fit with NSBE, says Humphrey, as the engineering organization also includes members from most other science, technology and math-related disciplines. The ex-MSU varsity basketball cheerleader joined NSBE after tutoring engineering students who were taking a C++ programming class at the University, and his interest and involvement in the Society took off. Now, he helps professionals discover and use valueadded components of NSBE membership in today’s tougher and more diverse economy.
Keith Humphrey, ‘93 ‘To Increase the Number’ Fellow Morgan graduate Darnell Fisher was NSBE National Alumni Extension chair from May 2012 through April of this year. He is a nuclear controls engineer working with the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department of NAVSEA, the Naval Sea Systems Command, at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, in Virginia. Like Humphrey, Fisher excelled at math from a young age and gravitated toward a science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) career. But beyond the fact that he received an academic scholarship from the school, he says, he was sold on Morgan because of its exciting, family-like atmosphere. Fisher was initially attracted to engineering because of the high average salaries and diverse opportunities in the profession. However, he says, he “ultimately settled on engineering due to the friends I made during my orientation week at Morgan.” The social and career development life of the University also led Fisher to NSBE. The Society’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally
Darnell Fisher, ‘03 responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact that community.” “While I succeed, I owe it to Morgan, my community and those who supported me, to reach back and give another minority student a chance to succeed anyway that I possibly can,” Fisher says. The former Bear varsity basketball player now supports MSU as an active mentor and recruiter of prospective Morgan students still in high school, and financially, as a lifetime member of the MSU National Alumni Association. At NAVSEA, Fisher is responsible for overseeing technical planning and execution of electrical controls projects related to the nuclear reactor compartments onboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and submarines. Coincidentally, NSBE had another recent link to Baltimore. Calvin A. Young III, a Baltimorean and a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, was NSBE’s national chair, the organization’s top officer, for the 2012–2013 program year. MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2013
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