My #BIEThrowback @BlkInEngineerng. I'll start with these photos from childhood. There aren't too many of these around. I'll get to that later in the thread. New Orleans East born and raised. 9th ward. Barely middle class with two parents working very hard. 2nd of 4 children

#BiEThrowback Neither parent had a college degree. In fact, very few before my generation had been to college in my family on both sides. But there was always a premium on education in our family from everyone. Grandma, grandpa, every aunt and uncle, every cousin, all the ...

#BiEThrowback extended family and friends of the family had the same message. Education is a strong value in the Black community. Even when your elementary school is named after Jefferson Davis like my first elementary school was.

#BiEThrowback My parents were not well off. No one in our family was. But as kids we never had any idea of the financial hardship of our parents. My mom made sure that we never really felt poor although we were sometimes teetering on the edge.

#BIEThrowback I did my undergrad work at Tulane University as one of very few Black students in engineering. Image here from my first biomedical lab experience as part of the Tulane University Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Louisiana. Led to my first pub.

#BIEThrowback That program was everything in shaping my skills as a researcher, my knowledge about grad school, and building my network of support. The program leaders ( @calvinmackie, Dr. Hank Bart, and Ms. Jannie Price) were a major part of my institutional support ...

#BIEThrowback at Tulane from the summer of my freshman year until graduation. They helped to guide me to an NSF GRFP and eventually to Purdue for grad school.

#BIEThrowback Grad school at Purdue...so many stories. So many trials. Remember before how I said there weren't many childhood pictures of me. That's because of the greatest trial during my grad years shown in the two images below. My mom's living room before and after Katrina

Those are part of my #BIEThrowback for so many reasons relevant right now. My entire family is from New Orleans. And a lot of them were there during that time. My mom and sisters evacuated. My brother, my father, and some of my cousins, and my grandfather did not.

#BIEThrowback There were 5 days in 2005 where we had no word about many of my family members. My brother included (the older boy in the first tweet). The last text he sent to me the night of the storm was "The water's coming in really fast." Then nothing for 5 days.

#BIEThrowback Particularly relevant now as many along the Gulf Coast deal with Laura. Relevant now in that the damage you saw from my mother's house was an ENGINEERING catastrophe - the levees failed.

#BiEThrowback And relevant now in how for that period of time while thinking family members were dead, including my brother who had protected me all of my life, I had to find a way to function when it seemed like no one in power gave a damn about their lives. Familiar feeling now

#BiEThrowback Fortunately, my brother and all of my family members survived Katrina. Many others were not so fortunate. Thinking of those folks experiencing Laura right now.

Like @princessofSTEM, many of my #BiEThrowback memories come from @NSBE. This amazing organization sustained me from pre-college all the way through graduate school and to this day. I had the honor of serving at the local, regional, and national levels of the organization.

#BiEThrowback The culmination of my @NSBE service was as Chair in 2007-2008. Where else can a Black student get the opportunity to set the strategic direction to affect national policy and create programs for Blacks in STEM? Manage millions in assets and a professional staff?

#BiEThrowback Where else can a Black student engage with the likes of Microsoft and Battelle and UTC and other large corporation to support a movement around engineering diversity and inclusion let by students? @NSBE taught me leadership, management, strategy, tactics, policy,...

#BiEThrowback project management, execution, and multilevel activism for the community.

This #BiEThrowback is the culmination of a journey. My dissertation defense day back at the @PurdueMEP office. Lots of smiles, laughter, and tears from that day. What a journey.

Last #BiEThrowback is a journey: from way back when to today. One particular pic of note is from 2014 with my grandfather, my mom, and my aunt. Our elders and ancestors did so much so that the little poor Black baby could be the Black man I am today. I'm so fortunate and grateful