Personal information

structural racim, STEM education, decolonization, antiblackness, STEM history

Biography

Dr. Ebony McGee of Johns Hopkins University is a Professor of Innovation and Inclusive STEM Ecosystem, in the School of Education and the Department of Mental Health under the School of Public Health. Dr. McGee is an electrical engineer by training and an 11-time NSF investigator awardee. She is the leading expert on race and structural racism in STEM, with all its toxic consequences and the growing resistance to the traditional STEM ecosystem. This includes the experiences and mental health consequences of seeking STEM training and occupations for Black and other minoritized students and professionals. She also investigates the limits of resiliency, wellness, and career embeddedness in the STEM ecosystem. She founded Racial Revolutionary and Inclusive Guidance for Health Throughout STEM (R-RIGHTS) and co-founded the Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative (EDEFI), as well as the Institute in Critical Quantitative and Mixed Methodologies Training for Underrepresented Scholars (ICQCM), with support from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the WT Grant Foundation.

Her latest research explores the relationship between STEM innovation and entrepreneurship. Her work focuses on the infrastructure enhancements required to support a diverse population of founders and business owners in STEM. She served as a member of the research team for the National GEM Consortium’s Inclusion in Innovation Initiative (i4), which is a $3.5 million cooperative partnership between the NSF and the National GEM Consortium, who provides scholarships for master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science, to develop a national diversity and inclusion infrastructure for the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program for STEM entreprenership.

A key concept in her work is equity ethics. In articles in the Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Engineering Education, American Journal of Education and Teacher College Record (in-press), she has demonstrated that racially minoritized people in STEM gravitate toward empathic social causes, such as the elimination of disparities, and racial justice efforts within and beyond their STEM pursuits. Their racial and ethnic marginalization—and the way they themselves have suffered—translates into concerns, efforts, and actions towards ending local and global disparities.

Her first sole-authored book is Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation, for which she conducted 319 interviews with high-achieving, underrepresented undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty of color in STEM fields. She found that key motivators for their persistence in STEM were catalyzing change, improving communities, and being the Black/Latinx/Indigenous STEM professors that many of these students never had. The book has received celebrated reviews by Teacher’s College Record, University World News, Science Education Review, Chemistry World Review, and the Journal of Intersectionality.

She has written numerous op-eds that have appeared in Science, The Washington Post, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Nature Human Behaviour and Cancer, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Higher Education Today, Education Week, and the British Broadcasting Company. Her research has appeared in Science, US News & World Report, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, The Hechinger Report, NPR Codeswitch, The Tennessean, and the Washington Monthly.

Links to learn more about Dr. McGee’s work
Personal Website: https://www.ebonymcgeephd.com/
Visit the R-RIGHTS website at https://r-rights.org/
Visit the ICQCM website at https://www.icqcm.org/
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebony-mcgee-b0328211/
Twitter: @Relationshipgap

Activities

Employment (2)

Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore, MD, US

2023-07-01 to present | Professor (Education)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee

Vanderbilt University: Nashville, TN, US

2012-08-01 to present | Professor of Diversity and STEM Education (Teaching and Learning)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee

Works (29)

Proceedings From a National Summit on Workplace Mental Health and Well-being

Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine
2024-12 | Journal article
Contributors: Enid Chung Roemer; Ron Z. Goetzel; Meghan F. Davis; Ying Zhang; Karen B. Kent; Jim Harter; Ebony O. McGee; Joan M. Troester; Lara Hilton; Kelcey J. Stratton et al.
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Wage Disparities in Academia for Engineering Women of Color and the Limitations of Advocacy and Agency

Research in Higher Education
2024-08 | Journal article
Contributors: Ebony McGee; Monica F. Cox; Joyce B. Main; Monica L. Miles; Meseret F. Hailu
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Development and Validation of the Workplace Climate and Persistence Scale for STEM Faculty Framed in Intersectionality of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Background

Research in Higher Education
2023-09 | Journal article
Contributors: So Yoon Yoon; Julie L. Aldridge; Monica F. Cox; Joyce B. Main; Ebony Omotola McGee; Meseret F. Hailu
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Fear, fuel, and fire!: Black STEM doctoral students’ career decisions during the Trump presidency

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
2023-05-28 | Journal article
Contributors: Ebony McGee
Source: check_circle
Crossref

How Black Engineering and Computing Faculty Exercise an Equity Ethic to Racially Fortify and Enrich Black Students

The Journal of Higher Education
2022-07-29 | Journal article
Contributors: Ebony O. McGee; Dara Naphan-Kingery; Monica L. Miles; Ocheze Joseph
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Risk, Protection, and Identity Development in High‐Achieving Black Males in High School

Journal of Research on Adolescence
2020-12 | Journal article
Contributors: Stacey L. Houston, II; Francis A. Pearman, II; Ebony O. McGee
Source: check_circle
Crossref

The burden of being “model”: Racialized experiences of Asian STEM college students.

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education
2017-09 | Journal article
Contributors: Ebony O. McGee; Bhoomi K. Thakore; Sandra S. LaBlance
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Crossref
grade
Preferred source (of 2)‎

Addressing negative racial and gendered experiences that discourage academic careers in engineering

Computing in Science and Engineering
2016 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84963808090

Contributors: Robinson, W.H.; McGee, E.O.; Bentley, L.C.; Houston, S.L.; Botchway, P.K.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Asian-American women engineering faculty: A literature review using an intersectional framework of race, class, and gender

Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
2016 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85006763587

Contributors: Sambamurthy, N.; Main, J.B.; Sanchez-Peña, M.; Cox, M.F.; McGee, E.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Black engineering students’ motivation for PhD attainment: passion plus purpose

Journal for Multicultural Education
2016 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84977569765

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; White, D.T.; Jenkins, A.T.; Houston, S.; Bentley, L.C.; Smith, W.J.; Robinson, W.H.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Colorism as a Salient Space for Understanding in Teacher Preparation

Theory into Practice
2016 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84954406107

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Alvarez, A.; Milner, H.R.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Devalued Black and Latino Racial Identities: A By-Product of STEM College Culture?

American Educational Research Journal
2016 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85008937444

Contributors: McGee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Entertainers or education researchers? The challenges associated with presenting while black

Race Ethnicity and Education
2016 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84946477386

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Kazembe, L.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

PANEL: Viewing engineering education through the lens of social science: A candid dialogue on race and gender

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
2016 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84983238326

Contributors: Robinson, W.H.; McGee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

The factors affecting the persistence of Latina faculty: A literature review using the intersectionality of race, gender, and class

Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
2016 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85006804197

Contributors: Sanchez-Peña, M.; Main, J.; Sambamurthy, N.; Cox, M.; McGee, E.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Black parents as advocates, motivators, and teachers of mathematics

Journal of Negro Education
2015 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84971578715

Contributors: McGee, E.; Spencer, M.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Diversity stalled: Explorations into the stagnant numbers of African American engineering faculty

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
2015 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84941995179

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Robinson, W.H.; Bentley, L.C.; Houston, S.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Racial and gendered experiences that dissuade a career in the professoriate

2015 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology, RESPECT 2015
2015 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84959904046

Contributors: Robinson, W.H.; McGee, E.O.; Bentley, L.C.; Houston, S.L.; Botchway, P.K.; Roy, R.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health, Healing, and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis

Educational Theory
2015 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84944613329

Contributors: Mcgee, E.O.; Stovall, D.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Robust and fragile mathematical identities: A framework for exploring racialized experiences and high achievement among black college students

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education
2015 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84959182594

Contributors: McGee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Understanding Black Male Mathematics High Achievers from the Inside Out: Internal Risk and Protective Factors in High School

Urban Review
2015 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84939268281

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Pearman, F.A.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Historicizing Mathematics and Mathematizing Social Studies for Social Justice: A Call for Integration

Equity and Excellence in Education
2014 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84901060610

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Hostetler, A.L.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Risk and Protective Factors in Mathematically Talented Black Male Students: Snapshots From Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade

Urban Education
2014 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84899657687

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Pearman, F.A.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

When it comes to the mathematics experiences of black pre-service teachers . . . race matters

Teachers College Record
2014 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84902341226

Contributors: McGee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Threatened and Placed at Risk: High Achieving African American Males in Urban High Schools

Urban Review
2013 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84886732956

Contributors: McGee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

"What do race and math have to do with each other?" Relationships between racial-mathematical socialization, mathematical identity, and racial identity. Commentary on English-Clarke, Slaughter-Defoe, and Martin

Contributions to Human Development
2012 | Book
EID:

2-s2.0-84870438817

Contributors: McGee, E.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Theoretical analysis of resilience and identity: An African American engineer’s life story

Thinking Comprehensively about Education: Spaces of Educative Possibility and their Implications for Public Policy
2012 | Book
EID:

2-s2.0-84874477550

Contributors: McGee, E.; Spencer, M.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

"You would not believe what i have to go through to prove my intellectual value!" stereotype management among academically successful black mathematics and engineering students

American Educational Research Journal
2011 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-81555195483

Contributors: McGee, E.O.; Martin, D.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier

Mathematics literacy and liberation: Reframing mathematics education for African-American children

Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education
2009 | Book
EID:

2-s2.0-81555211118

Contributors: Martin, D.B.; Mcgee, E.O.
Source: Self-asserted source
Ebony O McGee via Scopus - Elsevier