Dr. Mackie was Key Speaker during the Investiture of George Mason President Gregory Washington
FAIRFAX, VA – “Don’t confuse my passion with anger!”
That’s the opening Dr. Calvin Mackie frequently tells audiences when the New Orleans native relays his life story, a tale of early academic struggles, broken sports dreams and advance degrees culminating with his emergence as a global leader in advocating for, and teaching, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
His message is an acknowledgment there is a lot wrong in America that needs to be fixed, in the entire world really, ranging from racism to totalitarianism.
But his point is that just getting angry won’t solve all the problems; being passionate might. “When you look at the state of our country, look at the state of communities. You look at the state of education in America. Looks like somebody should be angry, somebody should be mad. Looks like somebody should be marching down the street, but I’m not angry,” he recently tells students and faculty at George Mason University. “I’m just passionate.”
The passion to excel and right the wrongs is what fuels him. Early on, the passion was toward basketball, where his killer jump shot rocked high school gyms and had him believing he could be an NBA star. Reality struck. He suffered a severely separated shoulder, one so brutally damaged that doctors told him he would never play basketball again. Suddenly, with one dream shattered, he quickly shifted gears, but it wasn’t easy: while envisioning a basketball future, he didn’t lay a foundation for academic success.
His father, Willie Mackie Sr., dropped out of school in the eighth grade to pick cotton before the carpenter started a roofing company. “I stand before you, as Dr. Mackie. I grew up in a house with no books, but just like many other young people today, I was obsessed with pop culture and I had a wicked crossover and a jump shot that just wouldn’t quit,” he recalls to the George Mason students.
After his gruesome injury, his coach took him to the hospital and then home to his mother, Martha. “Coach knocked on the door. He said, ‘Ms. Mackie, I’m sorry to tell you, but your son will never be able to play basketball again.’ My mom looked at me and she only had one thing to say, she said, ‘What are you going to do now? We told you to study. We told you to study.’ She said, ‘Boy, shut up and get in this house.’ That’s a Real Momma. We need more Mommas like that. And this thing about education can be turned around. I ran in my room. I laid in my bed. I looked up to God, and asked, ‘What am I gonna do? And God said, ‘Boy, don’t worry about your shoulder. You’re going to do more for this world, with your head than you ever thought you would do with your legs.’ ‘’
But it wasn’t an easy road.
Dr. Mackie remembers his guidance counselor as Miss V. He went to see her and told her he was going to be an engineer. She was skeptical. But she didn’t extinguish his dreams. First, she told him he had to take the SATs and then advised him to attend a college recruitment fair being held at the Superdome. His SAT scores were disappointing, but along the way the advice delivered by Ms. V transformed his life. “She said, ‘Calvin, a man cannot create a test to measure what’s inside of you. If you’re willing to work towards it.’ ‘’
At the college recruitment fair, young Mackie saw as a good omen when the first booth he saw was an engineering recruiter from Georgia Tech. But after they learned of his SAT scores, they pointed him in the direction of Morehouse College, the all-male historically Black college in Atlanta. They said they would help him become an engineer.
“I started Morehouse in remedial reading and developmental mathematics. I never forget my friends used to call me ‘LD for Louisiana Dummy,’ ‘’ he recalls. “And I never forget on my way to remediation reading class, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays had a quote on the wall that said “when you find out that you’re behind the race of life, you got two choices, run faster or quit.”
Dr. Mackie never quit; he ran faster!
George Mason President Dr. Gregory Washington, who invited Dr. Mackie to be a speaker during the presidential investiture events, said in his introduction: “I’ve seen him go through trials and tribulations and come out of the back end. He is one of the most amazing people I know. And, and you all will see why in a few minutes, he’s an award-winning mentor, inventor, author, former engineering professor. I’m sure he’ll talk to you about that. Internationally renowned speaker and successful entrepreneur.
“In 2013, he founded STEM NOLA…a nonprofit organization created to expose, inspire and engage communities in the opportunity of what’s called STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM NOLA has engaged more than 80,000 K-12 students in hands-on project base STEM activities. And in 2021, he launched STEM Global Action to take what he’s been doing in New Orleans global. He’s won numerous awards, including the 2003 presidential award for excellence in science, mathematics, and engineering mentoring at the White House.”
But Dr. Mackie doesn’t engage in storytelling to polish his ego or tout his own accomplishments. He tells his story to motivate others, to demonstrate that kids can overcome poverty to reach great heights and make their dreams come true.
The kid with basketball on his mind and no books in his home graduated Magna Cum Laude from Morehouse College with a B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1990, as a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. Simultaneously, he was awarded a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, where he subsequently earned his Master’s and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. Dr. Mackie is also a former tenured engineering professor at Tulane University. That job ended abruptly when the university president, looking to cut spending, dismantled the School of Engineering after Hurricane Katrina.
Soon Dr. Mackie had a new calling. His young sons, Myles Ahmad and Mason Amir, complained that they weren’t interested in science anymore because teachers just talked to the blackboards. Dr. Mackie was disheartened; he wanted his sons to also enjoy science and engineering. He took his sons to the garage on weekends where they did science experiments, hands-on adventures that reignited their interest. Soon, neighborhood kids joined them in the garage, with the group growing to more than 20 each weekend. That’s where STEM NOLA was born. A program that brings STEM education to the community, teaching STEM to children that the education system was ignoring.
In 2013, Dr. Mackie and his wife, Tracy, seeded the program with $100,000 of their savings. Dr. Mackie pleaded his case to local corporations, philanthropic organizations and government officials and won their support. Entergy Corporation, the power company, became their prime sponsor. He recruited churches and community centers as teaching facilities. Soon his non-profit, STEM NOLA, became the model for how to bring STEM learning to under-resourced Black and Brown communities. Communities across the country sought his advice and Dr. Mackie launched STEM Global Action with affiliates in place like Baton Rouge LA, Grambling, LA, Shreveport, LA, Saginaw, MI, Minneapolis, MN, and many others.
His programs do more than just teach K-12 students. Dr. Mackie brings in STEM professionals to work with the young students, as well as be mentors for his college volunteers. Each summer, Boeing sponsors a rocket day when kids make actual rockets that fly in a field. In April, he partnered with two biotechnology companies, Obatala Sciences and CellSpring, to provide 12 high school students with lab exposure with professional teams engaged in tissue engineering, stem cell research (stem cells isolated from adult fat tissue), and preclinical evaluation of potential therapeutics.
It is an example of the extraordinary opportunities that Dr. Mackie’s programs are providing hope in battered communities stricken by poverty, unemployment and rampant COVID infections and death. But in some ways, his work, and its impact, may be just beginning.
The City of New Orleans just announced that a team including STEM NOLA won the development rights to an abandoned 227-acre site that once housed Six Flags and Jazzland. Dr. Mackie envisions a STEM Center with advanced equipment, state-of-the-art facilities and modern educational opportunities. Six miles away, Dr. Mackie is already renovating a separate 42,000 square foot building into a STEM Innovation hub. “We are creating a STEM district, the most expansive effort in America to bring STEM education to Black and Brown children and adults. We want to prepare people from disadvantaged communities for quality STEM careers, jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities,” Dr. Mackie says. “Our goal is to create a destination for STEM innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development.”
Further, Dr. Mackie is creating a STEM ecosystem in the middle of an economically depressed, low-income community. His STEM education programs will increase the science, technology, engineering and math knowledge for young and old in the community, creating a desired environment for companies that will be attracted by the STEM educated workforce. Dr. Mackie sees a “STEM Triangle” modeled after the “Research Triangle” in Raleigh–Cary and Durham–Chapel Hill North Carolina that sprung to life from the educated workforce created by the region’s outstanding colleges and universities and private sector investments. “We want to emulate their success,” Dr. Mackie says. “Our STEM-educated students can fuel an economic revival for the area. This can be an example of an Opportunity Zone used to create good, rather than line the pockets of those exploiting the benefits solely for personal gain.”
His success is also indirectly boosted by the work of his brother, actor Anthony Mackie, who portrays Sam Wilson on the Disney+ miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and recently became the first Black Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “As a superhero, Wilson overcomes ferocious enemies and his own doubts about bearing the legacy of Captain America,” says Dr. Mackie. “He also confronts the concerns of others that no self-respecting Black man should even want to protect America considering its historic mistreatment of Blacks. In real life, my brother has also prevailed against the odds. When we lost our mother growing up, our family banded together and made his dreams come true: Anthony went to acting school.”
In the Disney show, Sam Wilson is never the strongest in battle. He relies on STEM to win. From his mechanical wings infused with Vibranium from Wakanda that enable him to fly, to his “Redwing” combat and reconnaissance drones, Wilson wins with a mastery of science and physics, of calculations and probabilities, and most importantly, by turning smarts and technology into paths for success. “Kudos to Marvel for elevating a Black man to succeeding with his intellect, rather than stereotypical physical attributes like speed, agility or brute force,” Dr. Mackie adds.
Speaking to the George Mason students, Dr. Mackie recalls James Baldwin’s powerful declaration that a passion, like anger, can be unfriendly. “He said that a passion is angry. He said that a passion contains a challenge and it contains an unspeakable hope. Everywhere I go and speak to people about education, especially about the education that our children need for the 21st century. I challenged them, but I refuse to leave you without hope.”
Clearly, Dr. Mackie’s legacy is planting seeds of hope – for his family, for his community and for America.