2009 Women of Color Award Winners
Prior to her current position, she led the company’s Global
Asked what advice she gives to young people, in particular
Sourcing Initiative, one of four enterprise-wide initiatives
women of color, Clayton had fi ve tips for excelling in a highly
launched in 2006 to increase growth and productivity and
technical business:
improve the value and quality Boeing provides to its cus-
tomers. Then, in June 2009, Clayton stepped up to lead
• Never stop learning.
the organization responsible for designing, deploying and
• Share your knowledge
integrating learning programs and ensuring that they align
with business priorities.
• Have a vision and perspective that’s bigger than you are.
“Norma’s energy and experience will take the organiza-
• Have integrity in everything you do.
tion to the next level and help drive exceptional individual, • Get a mentor.
team and organizational performance throughout Boeing,”
Clayton told Boeing News in 2000 that she believes men-
Stevens said.
tors are critical to helping people make positive decisions as
“By making sure we have the right people, the right skills, they grow, choose a career, raise a family and work their way
and the right jobs, we will be successful for years to come,” to success. The mentors in her life include an eighth-grade
Clayton said in a recent interview. “I know there is going science teacher, a high-school drafting teacher, a college
to be a shortage of engineers and I want to prepare the pipe- professor and her mother.
line by working with schools at all levels to increase science
“My mom was the most infl uential person in my life,” Clay-
literacy.”
ton said. “She used to tell me ‘It’s your little red wagon; you
The seventh of nine children born to an African-American can either push or pull.“ Clayton is simply in awe of what her
father and a Hispanic mother, Clayton entered New Jersey parents were able to accomplish. After all their children had
Institute of Technology through the Educational Opportunity graduated from college, her parents went back to school and
Program. EOP is one of the oldest initiatives nationwide de- got degrees of their own.
signed to provide access, academic support, and fi nancial aid
to students who show promise for mastering college-level
work, but who may otherwise not be admitted.
“By making sure we have the right people, the
right skills, and the right jobs, we will be suc-
5
Secrets to Success
from the
2009 Technologist
cessful for years to come. I know there is going
of the Year
to be a shortage of engineers and I want to
prepare the pipeline by working with schools
• Never stop learning.
at all levels to increase science literacy.” • Share your knowledge.
• Have a vision and perspective
that’s bigger than you are.
Clayton is active in numerous community and civic activities.
She is a board member of the American Society of Train-
• Have integrity in everything you do.
ing and Development, Tuskegee University, a member of
the Board of Regents at Linn State Technical College and a
• Get a mentor.
member of the Board of Overseers at New Jersey Institute
of Technology. She also sits on the board of the St. Louis
Academy of Science,
22 WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2009
www.womenofcolor.net
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