Celebrating Game Changers: Black Women who Pioneered the Tech Industry

This February, Giant Oak would like to pay homage to 8 extraordinary women of color who changed our world.
1. Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) - Computing

During her 35-year career at NASA, Katherine Johnson mastered manual calculations and pioneered the use of computers in the process of these calculations. Her calculations enabled the success of missions including Project Mercury, the Apollo Lunar and Command Modules, the Space Shuttle Program, and even a mission to Mars. During her lifetime, Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

2. Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-present) - Mathematics

Evelyn Boyd Granville was the second African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics from an American University, graduating in 1949 from Yale. Her work including pioneering advances in computing, and her tenure at IBM led to contributions to the Apollo Program. 

3. Annie Easley (1933-2011) - Computer Science/Mathematics/Rocket Science

Annie Easley worked for NASA at the Lewis Research Center, developing software for the Centaur rocket, also used in the Cassini probe. Easley was one of the first African Americans to work as a computer scientist at NASA.

4. Mary Jackson (1921-2005) - Mathematics/Aerospace Engineering

Mary Jackson was a mathematician and aerospace engineer with NASA, where she became NASA’s first Black female engineer in 1958. After nearly four decades of engineering work, Jackson became manager of the Federal Women’s Program and the Affirmative Action Program. In 2020 the NASA Washington DC Headquarters was renamed in her honor, and in 2019 she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

5. Melba Roy Mouton (1929-1990) - Mathematics

Melba Roy Mouton was a mathematician at NASA who served as the Assistant Chief of Research Programs at the Trajectory and Geodynamics Division, where she directed a group of mathematicians known as “computers”. During her time at NASA, she was Head Mathematician for the Echo Satellites 1 and 2, and the Head Programmer and Program Production Section Chief at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Before her retirement, she was awarded the Apollo Achievement Award and the Exceptional Performance Award.

6. Dorothy Vaughan (1910-2008) - Mathematics

Dorothy Vaughan was a computer and mathematician for NASA, where she was the first African American woman to supervise a group of staff at the center. During her tenure at NASA, the advent of computers led her to teach herself and her team the Fortran programming language, later heading the programming section of the Analysis and Computation Division at the Langley NASA base. In 2019, Vaughan was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

7. Gladys Mae West (1930 - present) - Mathematics