HBCUs and Public Interest Technology - The Perfect Match

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are perfectly positioned to become leaders in the burgeoning field of public interest technology.

Dr. Chad Womack, senior director of the National STEM Programs and Initiatives at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).That’s according to experts who gathered Tuesday night at #BlackTechPolicyWeek, hosted by #BlackTechFutures Research Institute, in partnership with Diverse.

#BlackTechFutures, from its home base at HBCU Stillman College, connects local, Black leaders with their nearest HBCU, and shares the data and policy know-how to build an equitable technological future. Currently, #BlackTechFutures is working with four cities in the U.S.: Birmingham, AL; Houston, TX; Nashville and Memphis, TN.

Public interest technology puts people at the center of technology. For #BlackTechFutures, partnering with HBCUs is intentional. HBCUs' unique mission, to uplift Black individuals and their communities, gives them a leg up on understanding how to put people first. Using public interest technology, experts said, can be a way for HBCUs to reclaim their narrative and promote Black excellence.

“I do fundamentally believe that HBCUs are the institutions and space in which our students and faculty can merge the tech with the core mission of our schools, by definition connected to community and in the public interest,” Dr. Chad Womack, senior director of the National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Programs and Initiatives at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), told the moderator, Dr. Jamal Watson. 

Dr. Brittany Mosby, director of HBCU Success, the first state-organized group focused on the success of public and private HBCUs in Tennessee.“The mission statement underneath HBCUs [is] to transform the world through the African American experience. Our schools are sacred in that they represent who we are as a people, as a folk,” said Womack. “As we engage the world, we need to make sure we’re allowing our young people to gain the skills that are important. At the same time, we have a lot to bring to the worlds in terms of a humanistic understanding of what this world is all about.”

Isaac McCoy, dean of Stillman’s School of Business, said that it was an easy decision to bring #BlackTechFutures to the college because of the leadership of Stillman President Dr. Cynthia Warrick.