Part of the way I have been approaching DE&I as an engineer has been through storytelling, problem-solving, and representation. As an engineer, I see DE&I as a problem no different than any other problems and as a result, the same engineering principles apply. The fun part about DE&I is I am able to use some of my creativity to solve problems, improve the community, and help my friends and family. As I found over the years the same skills I have used to solve technical problems can be used to help DE&I, the community, friends, and family. Below is the link to the Mother’s Day Episode of the Two Leias…And A Yoda podcast I have been developing with two of my friends from high school. I grew up loving sci-fi, but growing up in South Jersey there was not a lot of black kids that loved sci-fi, at least, that I knew of. So as opposed to just telling the stories I also try to come up with creative solutions to address problems like representation no different than I would as an engineer. In many ways, this is also a project that could inspire and address representation issues with women and on this particular episode based around Mother’s Day, I tried to drive that point home a little more.
Additionally, I always try to involve my protégés in some of my mentees in these projects. The artwork for the Two Leias…And A Yoda Podcast and Raelia Lewis’s Everything Is Everything Podcast were both done by my protégé Robb Burruezo-Chambers. The concept for the Stories of Oakcrest artwork was also inspired by Robb Burruezo-Chambers as well. The great thing about having such a diverse group of friends, colleagues, and mentees is give me so many different options as far as the projects I get to work on. There is no way one to way to address DE&I and improve the community, but I believe working with diverse groups of people, telling their stories, and developing projects with them that ultimately help address DE&I and improve the community is one way to approach the problem. Click here to see some pictures of the event that my other protégé Reji Berrouet covered for Raelia Lewis’ book. Click here to listen to the podcast I have been developing with Robb to help artists like him and Reji. Below is the artwork for Stories of Oakcrest and Everything Is Everything Podcasts as well.
