Karl W. Reid, Ed.D., CDP, a leading national advocate for diversity and inclusion, and increasing college access, opportunity and success for low-income and minority youth, 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.