Karl W. Reid featured speaker at ONU Engineering lecture
Karl W. Reid, Ed.D., CDP, a leading national advocate for diversity and inclusion will be the featured speaker for Ohio Northern University’s T.J. Smull College of Engineering as part of its Spotts Lecture Series. The free, public event will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21 at the Freed Center for the Performing Arts.
Reid, Northeastern University’s senior vice provost and chief inclusion officer, will discuss “Pursuing Mastery by Working Smarter, and Why it Matters.”
Prior to working at Northeastern University, Reid served for seven years as the executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers. He is a founding member of the 50K Coalition, a national effort to produce 50,000 diverse engineering graduates annually by 2025, and he is the author of “Working Smarter, Not Just Harder: Three Sensible Strategies for Succeeding in College… and Life,” a book he based on his doctoral dissertation, which examined the interrelationship of race, identity and academic achievement in African American males in college.
Reid grew up in Roosevelt, New York, a mostly working-class, African-American community on Long Island. He earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Tau Beta Pi Scholar. After graduating, Reid worked in the computer industry for 12 years in product management, marketing, sales and consulting. In 1991, Reid read Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities,” a seminal book about educational disparities in the U.S., which sparked his passion for bringing about positive change through education of African Americans and other underserved populations.
Reid returned to MIT to serve in positions of progressive responsibility to increase diversity at his alma mater. While working as director of engineering outreach programs, he earned his Doctor of Education degree from Harvard University. He became senior vice president for research, innovation and member college engagement for the United Negro College Fund, where he oversaw new program development, research and capacity building for the organization’s 37 historically black colleges and universities.
Today, Reid sits on the National Council for Expanding American Innovation at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; the Committee on Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women of Color in Technology at the National Academy of Engineering; the American Society for Civil Engineers Industrial Leaders Council; and the dean’s advisory cabinets for the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He holds memberships in the American Society for Engineering Education and the Council of Engineering and Scientific Executives.
Stories Posted This Week
Friday, June 27, 2025
- Michael E. High was a millwright
- Ada School board meeting scheduled for June 30
- Put a little more Ada in the Icon
- Big CAT makes short work of Main St. home
- Eight vehicle injury crash on I-75 near Bluffton
- Letter: Ask for veto of HB 96 library provision
- ODNR Offering Hunter Education Instructor Classes
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Monday, June 23, 2025
- Anna Marie Beagle taught at Allen East Elementary
- Updated trash pickup times during extreme heat
- Noteworthy dress rehearsal and concert with potluck, June 23 and 29
- Unconstitutional presidential action
- Hardin County Commissioners send letter objecting to HB 335
- Canvases create Ada Public Library art gallery
- Ada Athletic Boosters, Pony Pals Horse Club consult with Park board
- Upcoming APL events, June 23-28