Planeacion Estrategica

engineers who make a difference

education,energy and youth empowerment punctuate careers

Somewhere between the perfect life and the perfect career
lies the perfect cause to get involved in. Engineers make
decisions each day that impact the quality of life of those
who use the products and work in the facilities they build.
Industrial engineers in particular shape the processes andsystems that serve workplaces, communities and the world
at large. These are tall orders to be responsible for, and yet
so many also dedicate their time and skills to healing society’s
most pressing burdens.
Here, Industrial Engineer profiles three engineers who
aren’t only in the business of improving their organizations.
They seek project guidance from the heart, and by accentuatingtraditional approaches with wisdom and experiences
that take humanity into consideration, these figures possess
clear focus and direction. They speak with pride about
the causes they’re attached to and forge programs that will
matter for ages to come.

engineers who make a difference
crimefighting
strategy

Lesia Crumpton-Young
takes engineering to the streets

When was the last time anindustrial engineer ran for
office? Citing reasons why this tier of problem solvers
would make exceptional politicians, Lesia Crumpton-
Young, professor in the Department of Industrial
Engineering and Management Systems at the University
of Central Florida, has already campaigned for change
for many years. Her main electorate isn’t old enough to
vote though. As author of the You’ve Got thePower! workbook
series for children, youth program creator and a
motivational speaker, Young has fine-tuned a strategy
for improving lives, one process and one city at a time.
She has introduced her “character development model”
in classrooms and juvenile detention centers in North
Carolina, Texas and Florida in hopes of demolishing teen
violence, school dropout, pregnancy and suicide rates.Young’s words are emphatic: “We’re engineers, we solve
problems! Let’s figure out how to solve these problems! It falls
in line with the engineering approach.”
Young’s time as an advocate for youth empowerment isn’t
necessarily the crown jewel of her career span nor has it been a
single focus since becoming the first African-American female to
receive a Ph.D. in engineering at Texas A&MUniversity, where
she also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial
engineering. Her accolades have stacked up because of intensive
study and hard work associated with the development of
the Ergonomics/Human Factors Program and Experimentation
Laboratory during her tenure at Mississippi State University,
design of workplace solutions for persons with disabilities,
investigationof cumulative trauma disorders in the construction
industry and projects in her current position as co-director
of the National Science Foundation’s Industry/University
Cooperative Research Center for e-Design.
Add the Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Golden Torch
Award from the National Society of Black Engineers and the
Women of Color Educational Leadership Award and you’ve gotrelevant material to reference when trying to motivate others.
“The accolades have helped me develop a sense of accomplishment
and satisfaction with my career,” says Young.
“Some people don’t get that sense of accomplishment so
they have internal anxiety. It helps me in my motivational
speaking to say that I have done this and you can also. It
helps provide credibility to the message. That hasbeen the
best part. But I must admit I really thought about that question:
Have I really gotten past the point of thinking that I
need to perform better with pressure? In my 20s, I had an
adviser who said, ‘We call you guys ... our darker ones.’ This
was in 1984. Immediately I had this pressure. I remember
thinking, did he notice that I went to a high school for the
engineering profession?...