Women Who Inspire

Incorporated and recently served as the vice-chair for the Services to Youth Facet. She has made an immense impact on the chapter’s seminal mentorship program, So SMAART (which is an acronym for Set on Science/ Engineering, Mathematics, the Arts, Aviation, Reading, and Technology). The So SMAART students are young minority girls attending Thomas L. Marsalis Elementary School and William H. Atwell Middle School in Dallas Independent School District. “Seeing the spark in a student’s eyes that may not have realized their potential or the possibilities of a future STEM career—that is an ‘aha!’ moment on the importance of giving back,” Hall said. When asked about how to seek opportunities and organizations to volunteer, she says that “Google is your friend.” Hall recommends starting locally and looking for schools or organizations in your area that need assistance and volunteers. If you’re seeking virtual opportunities, the are many options that are just a click away.

Priscilla L. Ford

Electronics Engineer & Workforce Development Specialist Fleet Readiness Center Southwest/Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Priscilla Ford learned the importance of community service at just eight years old. Her father was a veteran, and her mother was president of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW. From a young age, she spent a lot of time at the VA hospital and volunteered by helping veterans that came back from the Vietnam War.

Ford currently works for the Workforce Management Department on the Workforce Development Team. Because of her love for her community, Ford has served on the Diamond Community Investors (DCI) Advisory Council for ten years. DCI is a group of 450 community investors that invested in a $10 million shopping plaza called Market Creek Plaza. This plaza is a commercial and cultural center in San Diego, and the first project is to be designed, built, and eventually owned by neighborhood residents.

Ford is also the co-founder of Mercury San Diego Track & Field, a nonprofit youth track team with over 100 athletes each year from the ages of 5–16 years old and has been the president since the teams’ inception in 2002. The support and services provided by MSDTF go well beyond athletics and include mentorship, academic support, community service, support to families, and prevention and intervention support to high-risk children. The great majority of her student-athletes transition to local high schools, excelling academically, athletically, and in the community. Even more, she sees many of these students come back during or after college to volunteer with the next round of students.

“It’s incredible to see the volunteering come full circle,” Ford says. “Having some of the students that went through the youth programs return and give back to the next generation and sharing their experiences is incredibly impactful.” When asked about how to get involved, she recommends starting locally. “Reach out to your local schools and youth programs,”

Ford says, “and ask where and how you can get involved. Dance classes, basketball programs, and recreation centers are great places to start. You can also reach out to your district’s councilman office and see what programs need more volunteers.”

Jasmine LeFlore

Senior Project Engineer/Nonprofit Founder Collins Aerospace/Greater Than Tech Raytheon Company Jasmine LeFlore grew up next to an airport as a child. With her eyes to the sky, she became fascinated with the idea of flight and air travel. Little did she know that she would one day be paving the way for future women engineers. Volunteering became a part of her life from a very young age. She was exposed to many STEM enrichment programs as a child and was inspired by watching the people who mentored her through these programs to continue giving back to students as an adult. LeFlore currently serves as a senior project engineer at Collins Aerospace and is the first African American woman to work as the chief of staff for the Aerostructures VP of Engineering. She began making contributions toward diversity and inclusion in STEM as soon as she started her journey with Collins Aerospace in 2015. As chair of the African American Forum (AAF), she directed the leadership team to host a seminar on becoming an engineer to high school students. “I was exposed to a lot of great things, like STEM programs and colleges, at a young age,” LeFlore says, reflecting on her first exposures to STEM. “I understand firsthand the impact of exposure to opportunities at an early age. The more exposure they get early on, the more opportunities they are given to see that they can change their future into what they want it to be.” She co-founded the nonprofit Greater Than Tech (GTT), which teaches girls of color the adaptation of technology and business integration concepts for students to become future business technology leaders. “We wanted to pair the cultivation of the entrepreneurial mindset and how they can combine that with tech,” LeFlore says. “It’s incredible to see the lightbulbs go off when students that might not have thought STEM was a possibility for them, but then learn that they can apply it in a business environment and learn the importance of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship.” Since COVID, the programs have evolved to webinars and virtual instructions for students, which is a significant change for such a hands-on program. She has brought leaders in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship to continue to educate the students in a virtual setting. LeFlore echoes the other WOC alumni regarding volunteering and recommends starting locally and using Google as a starting point to find networks and areas of opportunity within your community. She believes that it is never too early to start volunteering and giving back and encourages students to be vocal on what they are passionate about or interested in and find opportunities there first.

Whether it is volunteering with a college organization, getting involved with your employer’s community programs, or giving back to local groups in your backyard, there are plenty of ways to begin volunteering. Each of these remarkable women exemplifies the importance of believing that no act is too small and that impacting just one person’s future career makes giving your time genuinely gratifying. 

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