BLACK ENGINEER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS
the Coast Guard Academy in 1990, earning a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. After, he served as a deck watch officer aboard a cutter from 1990-1992. Following this tour at sea he was then transferred to Naval Air Station Pensacola in 1992, where he received his wings as a naval aviator in 1994. Upon completion of naval flight school, he was transferred to the Air Station in Miami, Fla., where he honed his skills conducting search and rescue operations as well as law enforcement mis- sions between 1994 and 2001. He served as the Sensors Program Manager in the Office of Command and Control at the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2005, and he managed procurement of the latest sensor technology in support of the Coast Guard’s Surface, Aviation and Shore Side community missions. He also partnered with the Coast Guard Research & Devel- opment Center, the Naval Research Laboratory, and Air Force Research Labo- ratory as the Coast Guard Operational Consultant in the Mojave desert to conduct testing on a hyper spectral imaging sensor that helped to change search and rescue in maritime and land-base areas.
Mentoring
It probably comes as no sur- prise that those in the science, technology, engineering
and
math fields who are success- ful and passionate about their life’s work are equally passionate about guiding and inspiring oth- ers. Among top Black engineers, mentoring is a common thread. Spending time as role model, coach and sounding board ap- parently resonates with many. Dr. Christopher Jones, a senior vice president and general man- ager at Northrop Grumman, has been a mentor and role model throughout his professional life. Despite a hectic work and travel schedule, Sandia National Laboratories’ Adam D. Williams makes time to mentor students. Terrance Southern, an automa- tion engineer, has mentored teams that built robots for com- petitions. And Lockheed Mar- tin’s Melvin Greer mentors high school and college students.
While posted at Coast Guard Headquarters, Makell earned his master’s degree in Computer Information Sys- tems. In the summer of 2005, he transferred to the Coast Guard Air Station in Atlantic City, N.J., where he headed a 16-member administration department and was one of a cadre of pilots designated to protect critical airspace in the nation’s capitol from low-flying aircraft. He also flew 21 more search and res-
cue cases in Atlantic City as Aircraft Commander and managed 42 cases as Senior Duty Officer, saving four lives. He served as aviation liaison at the Incident Command Center in St. Louis dur- ing recovery operations following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. For more than five years, Makell has coached kid’s basket- ball, volunteered at career fairs and taught aerodynamic classes to students in the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals. In 2010, he spoke at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Summer Education for Engineering Kids (SEEK) camp, and organized flyovers and the boarding of a Coast Guard cutter for the 150 third-fifth graders at the camp. Most recently he de- veloped a six-week professional development mentoring program for a high school football team in Washington, D.C., in partner-
www.blackengineer.com
ship with the Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Soon after taking up his current position as Ethnic Policy Advisor in 2009, Makell was assigned to the group that devel- oped the Coast Guard’s diversity strategic plan, which became the cornerstone for the Coast Guard’s 82,000 member workforce. His expertise was tapped again when he was made the repre- sentative to the Military Leadership Diversity Commission. The Commission was charted by Congress and the White House to study diversity in the five armed services of the United States coordinating all Coast Guard briefs and input to the commission for an 18-month period.
Makell is the first Coast Guard member to earn a Certificate in Diversity from Georgetown University. The program helps people with diversity responsibility gain the insight, skills and tools needed to help organizations implement a strategic, long-term, sustainable approach to diversity and inclusion management.
Career Achievement — Industry
Leo Mackay, Jr. Vice President, Ethics and Business Conduct
Lockheed Martin Corporation
turned their leading actors into American celebri- ties. But Tom Cruise and
S
Richard Gere were just acting. Leo Mackay’s real-life experi- ences, featuring his iconic character of service to others, would be a blockbuster. He graduated from the Naval Fighter Weapons School as an F-14 pilot and completed 1,400 flight hours and 235 carrier landings between 1986 and 1989. He was a “top gun” in the navy’s Flight Squadron Eleven, serving in the navy for 12 years, including a term as the Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1993 to 1995. Prior, he was a Belfer Center International Security Program Fellow 1991-1992, and took part in the center’s nuclear weapons and counter proliferation research. During this time, he earned a master’s degree in Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Interna- tional Security and Political Economy from Harvard University in 1993.
In 2001, Mackay was confirmed by the Senate for the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs second-highest post as Deputy Secretary. He stepped down in September 2003 to accept a position with ACS Healthcare as their Chief Operating Officer. Among his accomplishments at the Department of Veteran’s Af- fairs are the establishment of a Joint Executive Committee with the Department of Defense to coordinate policies, the strengthen- ing of a national shrine commitment to improve VA-run cemeter- ies, and improvements in procurement, finance and computer-
USBE&IT I WINTER 2012 17
ome of the best movies on navy pilots
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