Throughout her career, Kara Branch has been at the forefront of the evolving narrative of what it means to be an engineer. After graduating with an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), she found herself as the only Black woman in largely white, male-dominated industry environments. There, she worked her way into leadership positions, first as a lead manufacturing engineer and project manager at energy technology company Baker Hughes, then as a space program project engineer at Leidos where she managed projects on all NASA-awarded contracts, and finally as an engineering manager at Intel. Now, she is the founder and CEO of Black Girls Do Engineer (BGDE) (Figure 1), a Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to providing representation and resources for young Black women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
▲Figure 1. Kara Branch (far right) is the founder and CEO of Black Girls Do Engineer (BGDE), a nonprofit dedicated to providing representation for Black and African American women in STEM and introducing girls to a variety of possible STEM career paths. Here, she stands with BGDE board member Adeola Abisogun (far left) and the BGDE class of 2023–24.
The idea for BGDE came from two overlapping sources, the first being her own lived experience, and the second being her eldest daughter’s early interest in science. Branch grew up in Port Arthur, TX, where many people worked in the petroleum industry, including Branch’s family. Combined with...
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