Black Engineer of The Year
Change Makers:
WORLD I M PA C T
“TRAILBLAZER” IS A TERM THAT HAS BEEN USED TO DESCRIBE ALICIA BOLER DAVIS MANY TIMES DURING HER 23-YEAR CAREER AT GENERAL MOTORS. OVER THE YEARS, SHE HAS EAGERLY TAKEN ON CHALLENGING ASSIGNMENTS, BOLDLY HANDLED PROJECTS LADEN WITH RISKS, AND GENERALLY DEMONSTRATED A TENACITY AND WORK ETHIC THAT HAVE ENABLED HER TO ACHIEVE HER GOALS AND “MAKE THINGS BETTER.”
Her professional strengths have served her well, and today
she oversees a team of 165,000 employees working across 150 manufacturing sites in 20 countries. She also happens to be the highest-ranking African American in the automotive industry today, an honor she takes seriously. Her journey to become an engineer and eventual senior leader of a global automaker began in middle school.
Why She Became an Engineer “I knew I wanted to be an engineer in middle school,”
Davis told USBE on the phone from Michigan. “One of my teachers encouraged me because I was good in math and science.” Davis took his advice to heart. Aside from loving math and
science, she says she “enjoyed fi xing things and tinkering”— critical traits for becoming an engineer. That recommendation from her teacher piqued her interest and opened doors to a whole new world. But Davis still wasn’t sure exactly what an engineer did….
What Does an Engineer Do? “I got my fi rst real exposure to engineering during the
summer before my senior year of high school,” Davis said. “General Motors sponsored me to attend Kettering
University in a program called AIM (Academically Interested Minorities) for minority students interested in engineering.” During that six-week program, Davis lived on campus and studied calculus, computer programming, organic chemistry, public speaking, and more. She and her classmates also had the opportunity to visit several General Motors sites. “We visited plants that were building cars. We
visited plants that were building engines. We visited labs. We talked to engineers who were designing parts,” she said. “I remember leaving thinking, ‘Wow! GM is a big company, and engineers are doing so many diff erent things.’ That had a big impact on me!” The Kettering program was defi nitely a
gamechanger, but young Alicia didn’t have specifi c career plans at that point. Not many teenagers do.
What Did She Want to Do after School? “I just wanted to go to college,” Davis said. “I knew that I wanted to be an engineer, but I wasn’t
sure what I wanted to do.” When she applied to college, she chose electrical
engineering because it was one of the more popular fi elds at the time.
www.blackengineer.com
to consumer products to oil. She ultimately went to work at Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company (now Pfi zer) because she was attracted to the company culture and the fact that she could directly apply her chemical engineering skills. She enjoyed working in the chemical production area, where she specifi ed production equipment such as reactors,
CONFERENCE ISSUE 2018 I USBE&IT 23
“But once I arrived at Northwestern University and started learning about the diff erent options, I decided to become a chemical engineer. I always loved chemistry. While some shied away from chemical engineering because of the chemistry and the lab work, those things drove me to pursue it. I wanted to be challenged,” she explained. Driven but still uncertain whether she wanted to pursue a
profession of research or sales or something entirely diff erent, she chose chemical engineering because it seemed to off er a fulfi lling career in many industries.
Internships to Explore Engineering Options During the summer of her sophomore year, Davis had her
fi rst internship, at Dow Chemical in the R&D department. “It was exciting working on solvent formulations for
epoxy coatings,” she explained, “but I also fi nished the summer realizing I didn’t want to be a researcher,” Davis added with a laugh. “I realized that I wanted a job where I would interact more with people and receive more immediate feedback on my work.” During the summer of Davis’s junior year, she had her
second internship, this time at Ford Motor Company. “After growing up in the Detroit area, I found the idea of working in the automotive industry to be very exciting,” Davis said.
Finding a Job after College Upon graduation with a chemical engineering degree, she applied for jobs in various industries, from pharmaceutical
EDUCATION
• Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University
• Master’s degree in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• MBA from Indiana University
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