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First Gen Xavier(HBCU) Chem Grad to Rice(PWI) Chemical Engineering, PhD to President of Olin College: Meet Trailblazer and STEM Advocate, Dr. Gilda Barabino
In honor of Black History Month, we are honored to feature Gilda A. Barabino. Dr. Barabino is President and Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at Olin College. Dr. Barabino prepares future leaders and enables technological advances at the intersection of engineering and medicine. Her seminal research in sickle cell disease and orthopedic engineering informed current technologies and formed the basis for novel therapies. Gilda is on the GlobalMindED Board of Directors.
Tell us about your journey.
My path to my current role as a college president is marked by several career firsts and began with a deep belief in the power of education instilled in me by my parents. I was born in Anchorage, Alaska and grew up in a military family. Determined to prove my chemistry teacher wrong for his intimation that chemistry was not meant for girls, while still in high school, I enrolled in college chemistry at Xavier University of Louisiana and went on to obtain a chemistry degree. Starting out in pre-med and then recognizing that I was not cut out to be a medical doctor, I pursued graduate studies in chemical engineering at Rice University and chose sickle cell disease as my area of research for my PhD thesis in order to give back to my community.
When I obtained my PhD in 1986, I was the first African American to obtain a PhD in chemical engineering from Rice and the fifth in the nation to do so. In 1989, when I joined the faculty in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, I was the first African American woman to hold a tenure-track position in chemical engineering. Following Northeastern, I held faculty and administrative positions at Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and the City College of New York. At CCNY I served as dean of engineering and was the first African American female engineering dean at a non-HBCU institution. In 2020, I became the first African American female president of Olin College.
I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 47 years and we have a 39-year-old son. My husband and my son are my biggest champions and sources of support for my past and continued journey.
What pivotal experiences shaped your current path?
Besides my pursuit of chemistry as an undergraduate and then chemical engineering at the graduate level, the most pivotal experiences in my career were my decision to leave industry to join the academy and my decision to pursue academic administration. After receiving my doctorate, I worked for three years in the chemical industry. My motivation for doing so was because I wanted to obtain experience as a practicing engineer so that if I did choose academics, I would be strengthened by having practiced in the field I would be training students to enter. My entry into academic administration came as a window of opportunity opened for me by the then provost David Hall to serve as the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Northeastern University. Were it not for those pivots, I might not have become a college president.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in pursuing a career similar to yours?
From my perspective and experience, anyone seeking a career in any field is well advised to strive for excellence and to be bold and adventurous and unafraid to take risks or walk through doors of opportunity when they are opened. For engineering, in particular, early math preparation is critical as well as a healthy appetite for creativity and inquisition. I have also found when working in service of others and humanity more generally, we are also working for ourselves.
What drives your desire to contribute and make a difference?
From childhood, I have been driven by what is fair and just and I have always viewed education as a way forward. I’m determined to give back, to broaden opportunities for those who are most often at the margins or left out entirely, and to ensure that others following in my footsteps do not have to endure the struggles that I endured. I fully ascribe to the imperative spoken so well by the late John Brooks Slaughter, “we must let opportunity meet talent.”
If you could go back and advise your younger self, what would it be?
To my younger self I would say, “remember that when one door closes, another opens,” and I would pass on the following don’ts: “don’t neglect self-care while caring for others, don’t let your light be dimmed, don’t let yourself be placed in a box, don’t let others define you or your success, and don’t hesitate to seek help when needed.”
How can GlobalMindED support STEM leaders like yourself in achieving your goals and advancing your aspirations?
GlobalMindED is a platform and support vehicle that through its ability to develop and sustain networks, create connections across sectors, and provide opportunities for mentoring and professional development, is positioned to help anyone with career advancement at any stage. In my own case, I benefit greatly from broadening my network and serving as a new member of the GlobalMindED Board, particularly as I seek to design and implement programming for leadership development among faculty and senior practitioners.
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