Today, I talk with the incredible Dr. Calvin Mackie about his non-profit, STEM NOLA. We discuss the culture surrounding education, the impact COVID has had on our educational systems, and the ways his organization is working to reduce educational disparities in children across America. 

Dr. Mackie is a contributing writer for Forbes Magazine, former engineering professor at Tulane University and an internationally renowned public speaker. He is the founder of STEM NOLA, a non-profit organization which seeks to improve educational disparities in low income children and children of color. Since 2013, STEM NOLA has engaged over 75,000 students – mostly under-served students of color – in hands-on STEM project-based learning.

In 1990, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Morehouse College with a B.S. degree, as a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. Simultaneously, he was awarded a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, where he subsequently earned his Master’s and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1996.