Dean Barton Takes Part in DEIA Panel at the Community College of Baltimore County

On Thursday, October 20, 2022, Dr. Oscar Barton, Jr., Dean of the Mitchell School of Engineering, visited the Community College of Baltimore County to take part in a panel promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). The panel was sponsored by CCBC's Male Students Success Initiative (MSSI), a support group whose primary goal is to improve academic outcomes for men of color. Dean Barton has been working with MSSI for over a year now as part of his outreach efforts to strengthen ties that exist between CCBC and the Mitchell School of Engineering. He periodically meets with CCBC students that are within the MSSI program to offer advice and guidance so that they can successfully finish their program and possibly transfer to Morgan State University to complete their 4-year engineering degrees.

During the panel, moderated by Mr. Seydou Mbaye (Morgan State University Graduate Student, Research Engineer, NASA), Dean Barton highlighted his path to success where he was amongst a handful of African-Americans, and discussed his challenges and how he overcame them. It was an educative and genuine session where students, faculty and staff alike from CCBC were able to participate and take notes on how to advocate for DEIA in their respective communities. Dean Barton was joined on the panel by Mitchell School of Engineering Alumni Dr. Garfield Jones (Class of 2019, Associate Chief of Strategic Technology for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Adjunct Professor for Mitchell School of Engineering), and Mr. Kerron Duncan (Class of 2003, Senior Director of Innovation, Northrop Grumman), as well as Professor Jaime Alvarez, who serves as the Chairman of the Engineering Department at CCBC.

After the panel, the Dean reiterated his commitment to being a staunch DEIA advocate, maintaining stronger ties with CCBC and seeing more students in general, and African-American students in particular, transfer to the Mitchell SOE.