USBE magazine wondered where Marvin Carr’s dream will take him in February 2015, when he won the BEYA for Student Leadership. He’s not a dean of engineering yet, but he will have hundreds of students drawn to STEM Careers.

On May 16, 2016, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced that Dr. Marvin D. Carr has joined the agency as STEM and Community Engagement Advisor.

Carr previously served as policy advisor for STEM Education, Innovation, and Diversity to U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Before joining the White House, Carr worked with schools and government in Baltimore to implement STEM training and tutoring for inner-city youth and their parents. He has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Morgan State University, a Master of Science in systems engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Morgan State.

A Detroit native, Dr. Carr has worked with federal agencies, local leaders, the business community, and academia to support access to STEM for all Americans, especially those on the margins. Part of his work involved leveraging local engagement and community resources to enhance the STEM and Innovation aspects of the White House’s STEM policies and President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, which promotes opportunity creation for all young people.

“Our libraries and museums serve as important community resources that provide environments where young people, along with their families and caregivers, can learn, develop inquiry skills and be inspired. STEM learning experiences and the opportunity to engage youth with STEM professionals offered in museums and libraries help prepare them for long-term educational success,” said IMLS director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew.

“Dr. Carr brings to IMLS strong research and analytic skills in the areas of educational psychology, STEM education, and indicators about entry into STEM careers. His expertise will greatly enhance our STEM partnerships and engagement of STEM experts.”

Dr. Carr joins IMLS as it works to pull together best practices in the STEM area. The STEM Expert Facilitation of Family Learning in Libraries and Museums or STEMeX initiative will provide grants up to $1,000,000 for projects of up to two years. Funded through the National Leadership Grants program, STEMeX has a goal of addressing challenges faced by museums and libraries and advancing practices in that field. Applications were due May 1 and the first STEMeX grant awards should be announced in coming months.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries (link is external) and 35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook (link is external) and Twitter (link is external).

The story below was first published in USBE magazine’s Conference Edition distributed at the 2015 BEYA STEM Conference in Washington D.C. February 2015

Marvin Carr
Systems Engineer & Project Manager
Innovative STEM Solutions, LLC
2015 BEYA Student Leadership

Where will his dream take Marvin Carr? And of equal importance who benefits from his pursuit of that dream?

Answer: Hundreds of young students drawn to STEM careers, or pursuing them, for he hopes to become the dean of a School of Engineering at an HBCU.

The scholar and champion of STEM education has connected himself to such a variety of organizations and establishments and schools and programs, that his reach is being felt by hundreds of up-and-coming STEM students and others intrigued by the fields because of him.

Now a systems engineer and project manager with iSTEMS, Carr is a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholar – an academic honor that comes with a $300,000 scholarship to finance his engineering education from college through graduate school.

As a Millennium Scholar, he travels throughout the country supporting the Foundation’s mission to increase the number of minority students who pursue terminal degrees in STEM fields.

Besides an outstanding academic record, he is credited for his “innovative, creative and impactful approach to STEM outreach and Engineering Education research, and … [his] record as a transformational student leader and mentor to dozens of engineering students and the larger collegiate and secondary education communities,” explains Albert Sweets Jr., principal, iSTEMS.

“As an emerging scholar and researcher in the field of Engineering Education and Educational Psychology, he has taken the steps to open the doors to more young people of color so they may share in the benefits of education and training in STEM,” Sweets said.

After Morgan State University, he was awarded the GEM Fellowship and started his academic and scholarly pursuits with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County School of Engineering in Engineering Education and STEM development.

Today, he is a doctoral student in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan State and expects to complete his studies in May.

Carr used student organizations as vessels to grow his leadership potential, share the STEM message, and encourage the achievement of his peers.

His first experience as a leader in his field came on the Executive Board of The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Engineering Student Organization Council. His influence spread as he became active in the Student Government Association (SGA). Through service in the SGA, he truly began to flourish as a leader.

He became a mentor to students and served in four different leadership positions. In the SGA, he developed pride, courage, humility, and confidence that prepared him to be an effective leader.

Many of his achievements in STEM outreach were done via his fraternal organization, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. With it, he spent the last seven years running STEM and Robotics Camps. Under his influence, more than 20 students have decided to pursue engineering and/or science in college. And because of his campus leadership experiences, both inside and outside of the School of Engineering, he has taught the importance of a holistic understanding of academic achievement, intellection development, and familiarity with STEM.

“Surprisingly, every eighth-grade student Mr. Carr mentored is now highly interested in STEM. This has caused me to think how we can use Mr. Carr to engage our scholars on every grade level in STEM,” comments Jacob Waites, Benchmark Kappa Youth Leadership Institute chairman.