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Legacy awards were in a special category of their own at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) before 2016. But at the 30th annual conference, BEYA reintroduced the awards to celebrate people who have won the top BEYA since 1987.
Legacy awards recognize outstanding contributions to mentoring and talent development and excellence in the workforce. Over the last five years, the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Engineering Deans Breakfast at BEYA has been the place for special recognition honorees to receive Legacy Awards.
This year, the Arlington W. Carter (1989 Black Engineer) Legacy Award goes to Charlisha (Charli) Greene. She is vice president of supply chain commodities in the Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit at The Boeing Company. Charlisha has a knack for creating campaigns that move her team toward its business goals.
She created the “Give and Expect Excellence—Tell the Story—Know the Impact” campaign to focus on suppliers. Another campaign “Grey Poupon” highlighted the value of relationships. This was instrumental during her role as a senior executive when a team was moved from operations into the supply chain. Greene used the campaign to help the organization feel welcome. Finally, the “Yellow Brick Road” campaign was created while setting new goals.
“Charli works to create a culture of inclusion, and her connection with people allows her to deliver the highest levels of performance. Charli truly embodies the professional excellence and leadership traits honored by BEYA,” said Pat Cazeau of The Boeing. Company
Johnny Jackson is the winner of the 2022 Dr. Wanda Austin Legacy award. A lead architect for national security space programs, Austin was the first Black woman to lead The Aerospace Corporation, a corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers.
Jackson is a senior airfield civil engineer with Jacobs Engineering. Before relocating to Dallas, Jackson worked on the O’Hare Modernization Program, a $6.6 billion airfield reconfiguration program. Within Jacobs, Jackson serves in multiple roles. In addition to his daily activities, Jackson serves as the chair for Jacobs’ Black Employee Network Group, Harambee.
The network’s mission is to enhance the Black employee experience through recruitment, development, and retention. “He is committed to the development of Black engineering professionals, as indicated by his participation in Harambee, an internal Jacobs employee network chartered with recruiting and retaining Black employees,” said Michael Vonic of Jacobs.
The 2022 David Steward Legacy Award winner is Demetrias Jones. Steward is co-founder of World Wide Technology and the 2012 Black Engineer of the Year.
Jones is an IT manager responsible for customer experience application development at Textron Aviation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his team built a suite of COVID-19 applications to help support the business through a challenging time.
All these tools were created by Jones’ team of determined individuals working together to provide the best support they could for their peers and the business. The suite of applications above won the Textron Corporate IT Innovation Award for COVID-19 Support.