2009 Women of Color Award Winners
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT CAREER ACHIEVEMENT –
- Government Government
Jacqueline M. Akinpelu, PhD Jacqueline Toussaint-Barker
Assistant Supervisor, Intelligence Chief of Electronics Exploration Branch
Systems Engineering Group Sensors Directorate
The Johns Hopkins University Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
Applied Physics Laboratory
BSc –physics, Xavier University, Louisiana
BA – mathematics, Duke University BSc – electrical engineering, University of
PhD – mathematical sciences, Johns New Orleans
Hopkins University MA – management science, University of Dayton
Jacqueline Akinpelu is a systems Jacqueline Toussaint-Barker, who began her career as a fi re-
engineer and mathematician. control systems engineer two decades ago, was in 2009
Her 29-year career spans modeling and developing computer named the chief of the exploration electronics branch—rising
systems for telecommunications networks, systems-develop- to become the fi rst black female to hold a supervisory position
ment operations, and teaching at Ocean County College, New at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate in its
Jersey, Monmouth University, NJ, and John Hopkins University. more than 60 years of existence.
Dr. Akinpelu joined AT&T in 1980 as a member of the Bell How Toussaint-Barker rose from a bench-level electronics
Laboratories technical staff and moved into management fi ve engineer to become one of the key leaders at the AFRL’s major
years later. She acted as a technical manager to several groups, R&D organization is no mystery. It shows in her outstanding
leading the development of network operating systems, as well achievements, sustained professional growth and leadership.
as the designing of network routing and analytical and simula-
Toussaint-Barker is a nationally recognized expert in the fi elds
tion models.
of electronic devices and materials, advanced circuit concepts
From 1991 to 2006, she managed a $36-million budget with and subsystem integration for emerging electronics and opto-
a staff of more than 200 to deliver a state-of-the-art routing electronics application. She designed and developed radio fre-
system to support evolution of AT&T’s long-distance network. quency systems for air-to-ground radar. If that seems arcane,
This operations system is critical to the routing of more than recall that the “Look down, Shoot down” systems she works
200 million calls daily on the AT&T switched-circuit network. on are behind the spectacular night videos that stunned Iraqi
troops during Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Dr. Akinpelu made remarkable professional and technical ac-
complishments, while participating in activities that built the Toussaint-Barker has published papers in journals and confer-
work community. She helped infl uence AT&T’s approach to ca- ence proceedings. She presents complex technical projects and
reer planning for more than 1,000 technical and management programs to the scientifi c advisory board of the Air Force and
staff. She also helped guide minority recruitment and served as Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), and con-
a mentor to others coming up the technical staff pipeline. ducts joint planning and programs with leading scientists and
engineers in industry, academia, and government to develop
In 2006, Dr. Akinpelu joined the Applied Physics Laboratory,
electronic and photonic devices for military application.
where she has made key contributions to programs that are
critical to the security of the nation, and to engineering activi- She has also been a driver in workforce diversity. Through
ties of the intelligence community. She has built models of her innovation, a collaborative of 20 research institutions has
large-scale databases, which identifi ed problems in systems produced key advancements in areas from radio frequency
before they were released for use—preventing their occurrence transmission to automated target recognition to electro-
in practice. optic systems. The program has also had a dramatic impact on
expanding R&D opportunities to major colleges, as well as in-
While she invests major effort in developing new methods
creasing the number of historically black college and university
of modeling and simulating intelligence system technology
students (and high school students), who get exposure to a
designs at the APL, Dr. Akinpelu also plays a leadership role in
high-quality science and engineering enterprise. Based on this
establishing outreach programs to historically black colleges
success, she was asked to implement its tenets across AFRL’s
and universities and other minority institutions. She is commit-
diversity recruitment and retention programs.
ted to the vision of developing engineers from diverse back-
grounds. Toussaint-Barker manages a 12-person team of world-class
scientists and engineers and a budget in excess of $40 million,
Her work may be classifi ed, but women like her are the best
directing R&D in electronic materials and devices. The future-
secret weapons in the fi ght for diversity in the technical work-
generation advanced radars for fi ghter aircraft, unmanned
place.
aerial vehicles (UAVs), Space systems, directed-energy sensors
and classifi ed weapon systems have the potential to drasti-
cally improve the capabilities of future Air Force and homeland
security sensor systems.
24 WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2009 www.womenofcolor.net
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