Annie Jean Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an African American computer scientist from Birmingham, Alabama. Considering the nursing and pharmacy profession, Easley moved to New Orleans where she attended Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) for two years before moving back home. Eventually landing in Ohio, she found a job at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), in 1955, where she worked as a human computer. When NACA became NASA, she worked on the team that put an astronaut into orbit, developed code for the Centaur rocket, and ran simulations for a reactor facility in Ohio.
With the advancement of space technology, she went back to school and received a B.S (1977) in Mathematics from Cleveland State University (CSU), making her one of the first black women to do so at the institution. She would go on to work on nuclear rocket powered systems, wind and solar energy, and learn new computer languages. Facing discrimination at work and not receiving financial aid that others received, she became an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor. As an advocate for blacks in STEM fields, she started tutoring and mentorship programs for children, worked against racial discrimination, and recruited for engineering students. Annie Easley passed in 2011.
References:
- https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/annie-j-easley-1933-2011/
- https://www.nasa.gov/history/annie-easley-computer-scientist/
- https://awis.org/historical-women/annie-easley/
Image source: Public Domain