Become A Sponsor

For Mary Winston Jackson, a love of science and a commitment to improving the lives of the people around her were one and the same. In the 1970s, she helped the youngsters in the science club at Hampton’s King Street Community center build their own wind tunnel and use it to conduct experiments. “We have to do something like this to get them interested in science," she said in an article for the local newspaper. "Sometimes they are not aware of the number of black scientists, and don't even know of the career opportunities until it is too late."

Mary’s own path to an engineering career at the NASA Langley Research Center was far from direct. A native of Hampton, Virginia, she graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942 with a dual degree in Math and Physical Sciences, and accepted a job as a math teacher at a black school in Calvert County, Maryland. Hampton had become one of the nerve centers of the World War II home front effort, and after a year of teaching, Mary returned home, finding a position as the receptionist at the King Street USO Club, which served the city’s black population. It would take three more career changes—a post as a bookkeeper in Hampton Institute’s Health Department, a stint at home following the birth of her son, Levi, and a job as an Army secretary at Fort Monroe—before Mary landed at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computing section in 1951, reporting to the group’s supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.

After two years in the computing pool, Mary received an offer to work for engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki in the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel capable of blasting models with winds approaching twice the speed of sound. Czarnecki offered Mary hands-on experience conducting experiments in the facility, and eventually suggested that she enter a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer. Trainees had to take graduate level math and physics in after-work courses managed by the University of Virginia. Because the classes were held at then-segregated Hampton High School, however, Mary needed special permission from the City of Hampton to join her white peers in the classroom. Never one to flinch in the face of a challenge, Mary completed the courses, earned the promotion, and in 1958 became NASA’s first black female engineer. That same year, she co-authored her first report, Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on Cones at Supersonic Speeds.

Mary began her engineering career in an era in which female engineers of any background were a rarity; in the 1950s, she very well may have been the only black female aeronautical engineer in the field. For nearly two decades she enjoyed a productive engineering career, authoring or co-authoring a dozen or so research reports, most focused on the behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. As the years progressed, the promotions slowed, and she became frustrated at her inability to break into management-level grades. In 1979, seeing that the glass ceiling was the rule rather than the exception for the center’s female professionals, she made a final, dramatic career change, leaving engineering and taking a demotion to fill the open position of Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager. There, she worked hard to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and scientists.

Mary retired from Langley in 1985. Among her many honors were an Apollo Group Achievement Award, and being named Langley’s Volunteer of the Year in 1976. She served as the chair of one of the center’s annual United Way campaigns, was a Girl Scout troop leader for more than three decades, and a member of the National Technical Association (the oldest African American technical organization in the United States).  She and her husband Levi had an open-door policy for young Langley recruits trying to gain their footing in a new town and a new career. A 1976 Langley Researcher profile might have done the best job capturing Mary’s spirit and character, calling her a “gentlelady, wife and mother, humanitarian and scientist.” For Mary W. Jackson, science and service went hand in hand. Biography by Margot Lee Shetterly

The exclusive premier event sponsorship benefits include:

• Premier company recognition before, during & after the Summit

• Assistance in identifying networking/contact opportunities that could be of usefulness to the Sponsor

• Invitation to provide remarks during the Summit, e.g. 5- or 10-min. virtual company/organization profile (pre-recorded presentation/video)

• Registration contact list

• Company name & logo on online signage/introductions for the Summit

• Leader board banner with company/organization logo (728 X90 pixels) on the Innovation in Agriculture &

• Energy Opportunity Zone Summit website, www.IAEOZsummit.com

• One-year banner and video posting on the ‘What Works’ online video platform

• Pre-conference Sponsor recognition in e-mail blast to registrants

• Digital Copies of Summit Presentations & Materials

• Premier sponsorship recognition on all IAEOZ Webinars and Podcasts for one year

• Exhibitor Booth

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, (August 5, 1946 – Present) is a theoretical American physicist and the eighteenth President of the renowned engineering and research University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Jackson is the first African-American woman to receive a Doctorate in any field from MIT and the first woman and African American woman to Chair the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She holds a B.S. in Physics, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Event sponsorship benefits include:

• Company recognition before, during & after the Summit

• Company name & logo on online signage/introductions for the Summit, and on the Innovation in Agriculture & Energy Opportunity Zone Summit website, www.IAEOZsummit.com

• A 6-months banner and video posting on the ‘What Works’ online video platform

• Pre-conference Sponsor recognition in e-mail blast to registrants

• Digital Copies of Summit Presentations & Materials

• Sponsorship recognition on all IAEOZ Webinars and Podcasts for 6 months

• Exhibitor Booth

Booker T. Whatley (November 5, 1915 – September 3, 2005) was an agricultural professor at Tuskegee University and one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture in the post-World War II era. Dr. Whatley envisioned and advocated "to create an agrarian black middle class". He received his B.S. degree in agriculture from Alabama A&M University Doctorate in Horticulture from Rutgers University. He later earned a Law degree from Alabama A&M University in 1989. Dr. Whatley is best known for his regenerative farming system, in combination with the direct marketing concept of pick-your own (PYO), a customer harvesting operation managed by farmers and growers.

Event sponsorship benefits include:

• Company recognition before, during & after the Summit

• Name & logo on online signage/introductions for the Summit

• Pre-conference Sponsor recognition in e-mail blast to registrants

• Digital Copies of Summit Presentations & Materials