Today's Articles

People, Locations, Episodes

Fri, 06.05.1970

Angela Barbee-Hatter, Engineer born

Angela Barbee-Hatter

*The birth of Angela Barbee-Hatter is celebrated on this date in 1970. She is a Black engineer and corporate manager.

From Milwaukee, WI, Angela Barbee fell in love with engineering through a middle school INROADS pre-college program. As the first Black female graduate of Milwaukee Trade & Tech High's pre-engineering program, she found college a financial challenge. Barbie-Hatter worked while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, serving as a City of Milwaukee engineering drafting technician. She was also a volunteer tutor/mentor and rechartered her local National Society of African American Engineers chapter. In 1993, she earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Wayne State University. In 1998, she received her M.S. from Purdue University.

Barbee-Hatter turned a co-op opportunity into a career that benefited her, fellow students, colleagues, and Purdue University. Ford Motor Company moved her to Wayne State University. She finished in 1993 while moving up to the National Society of African American Engineers' regional and national boards and participating in the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society. Barbee-Hatter joined Nissan Motors Company and General Motors. She continued campus links, became a functional recruiting leader for G.M.'s NSBE Corporate Recruiting Team, and joined the Georgia Tech recruiting team.

She won a Distinguished Service Award for her work with the G.M. Salaried Congress and an Outstanding Alumni Award for service on the Corporate Advisory Board for the Association of African American Engineers and Applied Scientists at Wayne State University. Next, one of eight Truck Division staffers to win competitive Distinguished Fellowship Awards, Barbee-Hatter went to Purdue University and was the first African American female graduate of the Herrick Laboratories M.Sc. program. She also tutored undergrads and was a volunteer Minority Engineering Program mentor at Wisconsin.

She returned as a G.M. engineer-in-residence and gained wide notice as a teacher and role model for women and minorities. She joined Purdue's Industrial Advisory Board and, with colleague Gary Cummings, another of this year's African American Engineers of the Year, played a critical role in arranging the PACE partnership's gift of $116 million worth of engineering design packages.

To become a Mechanical engineer

New Poem Each Day

Poetry Corner

these hips are big hips they need space to move around in. they don't fit into little petty places. these hips are free hips. they don't like to be... HOMAGE TO MY HIPS by Lucille Clifton
Read More