Community Spotlight

Entrepreneurs

4 Professionals

Executives

6 Professionals

Inventors

10 Professionals

Discover BlackExcellencein every field

Get to know the inspiring Black professionals shaping industries worldwide

Featured Professionals

Author

Octavia Estelle Butler

Science Fiction Writer

First science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Fellowship
Multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner

Entrepreneur

David L. Steward

Founder and Chairman at World Wide Technology

Built World Wide Technology into a multibillion-dollar company
Board member of Civic Progress, United Way, and more

Executive

Thasunda Brown Duckett

President and CEO at TIAA

One of two Black women currently serving as Fortune 500 CEOs
Former CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, and currently a board member of Nike, Brex, and Lowes

Inventors

Valerie LaVerne Thomas

Inventor, Physicist, Data Analyst

NASA

Otis Frank Boykin

Inventor, Electrical Engineer

Various Electronics Companies

George Washington Carver

Inventor, Agricultural Scientist, Educator

Tuskegee Institute

Valerie LaVerne Thomas

Inventor, Physicist, Data Analyst at NASA

Invented the illusion transmitter, a 3D imaging technology, U.S. Patent No. 4,229,761
Developed Landsat digital image processing systems used by NASA

Otis Frank Boykin

Inventor, Electrical Engineer at Various Electronics Companies

Invented an improved electrical resistor used in computers and pacemakers, U.S. Patent No. 2,972,726
Developed the control unit for the artificial cardiac pacemaker

George Washington Carver

Inventor, Agricultural Scientist, Educator at Tuskegee Institute

Developed over 300 derivative products from peanuts and 118 from sweet potatoes
Created crop rotation methods that revolutionized southern agriculture

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Lawyers

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Professor of Law

UCLA School of Law & Columbia Law School

Charlotte E. Ray

First Female African American Lawyer

Private Practice

Thurgood Marshall

Associate Justice (Former)

Supreme Court of the United States

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law & Columbia Law School

Developed the critical legal theory of intersectionality
Co-founded the African American Policy Forum

Charlotte E. Ray

First Female African American Lawyer at Private Practice

First African American female lawyer in the United States
First female admitted to the District of Columbia Bar

Thurgood Marshall

Associate Justice (Former) at Supreme Court of the United States

First African American Supreme Court Justice
Won 29 of 32 cases argued before the Supreme Court

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Filmmakers

Ryan Kyle Coogler

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Proximity Media

Ava DuVernay

Director, Producer, and Screenwriter

ARRAY

Ryan Kyle Coogler

Director, Producer, Screenwriter at Proximity Media

Directed 'Black Panther,' the first superhero film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for 'Fruitvale Station'

Ava DuVernay

Director, Producer, and Screenwriter at ARRAY

First Black woman to win the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival
First Black woman to direct a $100+ million-budgeted film ('A Wrinkle in Time')

Academics

Ibram X. Kendi

Director and Professor

Boston University Center for Antiracist Research

Ibram X. Kendi

Director and Professor at Boston University Center for Antiracist Research

Youngest winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction for 'Stamped from the Beginning'
MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship recipient