Celebrating the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) during its golden anniversary in the first week of March will hold special significance for CEO Janeen Uzzell.
In 2021, she assumed responsibility for executing NSBE's strategic plan, "Game Change 2025," which aims to partner with higher education institutions to graduate 10,000 new Black engineers annually in the U.S. by 2025.
Founded in 1975 by six engineering undergraduates and their faculty advisor at Purdue University, NSBE was established to improve the graduation rates of Black engineering students in the United States.
Today, NSBE is an international organization with members in the U.S., several African nations, Canada, the Caribbean, and beyond, dedicated to its mission of increasing the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel and succeed.
On March 5, 2025, NSBE will host its Annual Convention at McCormick Place in Chicago. This four-day event will celebrate the convention's theme, "Five Decades of Black Excellence Engineered," and will include the Pre-College Initiative as well as Graduate Studies and Careers conferences.
On February 11, 2025, Janeen Uzzell was elected, along with 127 other members, to the Class of 2025 by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions for an engineer. The members of the NAE are among the world’s most accomplished engineers from business, academia, and government.
Uzzell, who is the CEO of NSBE, was recognized by the NAE for her contributions to improving global access to health information and healthcare outcomes while enhancing racial, gender, and community engagement in engineering.
Uzzell holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and an MBA in business from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
With over 20 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, and startups, she spent 16 years in various executive roles at General Electric (GE).
During her time at GE, Uzzell held several technical positions, served as a profit-and-loss leader, managed a significant customer base, and led the Women in Technology initiative.
She worked to accelerate the cultural shift necessary to increase the number of women in the company's technical workforce, which comprised 300,000 employees.
Additionally, from 2009 to 2014, she served as the director of healthcare programs for GE Africa, based in Accra, Ghana.
Uzzell also served on the board of directors for Mercy Ships and was a member of the Engineering Advisory Board at her alma mater, NCA&T.
"Joining NSBE is an exciting transition for me, one that aligns well with my previous work," Uzzell stated in 2021. "Throughout my career, I have been passionate about providing access to critical resources through technology. For 20 years at GE, that resource was healthcare, particularly in Africa. At Wikimedia, it was knowledge and information that we shared freely. At NSBE, the focus is on expanding access to the engineering field to cultivate more problem solvers who can address global challenges and empower communities."
Favour Nerrise, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Stanford University and former national chair of NSBE (2021-2022), expressed her enthusiasm about Uzzell's appointment to lead NSBE's staff at headquarters and implement the directives of the student-led organization.