SPEO: Mentoring Future Engineers and Scientists | The James Protin Podcast

The James Protin Podcast

For Episode 79 of the podcast, we’re featuring two Pittsburgh based nonprofits, Southwestern Pennsylvania Engineering Outreach (SPEO), NEED (Negro Education Emergency Drive).
Our guests are and Holly Douglas, Chairwoman and Donna Chappel, Treasurer of SPEO, and Dr. Marcia M. Sturdivant, the President and Chief Executive Officer of NEED.
SPEO is a non-profit organization whose members are dedicated to mentoring local minority- and women-owned business enterprise (MBE/WBE) firms in Southwestern Pennsylvania and providing networking and subconsulting opportunities to them.
Over the years, SPEO members have mentored local minority and women-owned business enterprises (MBEs/WBEs) and provided networking and sub-consulting opportunities. SPEO has also provided educational grants to support programs that enable and empower our region’s potential future engineers and scientists through exposure and discovery of STEM concepts.
NEED was founded sixty years ago on July 22, 1963. NEED has grown to provide scholarship assistance to a small group of high school students into a nationally-recognized college access program, sending over 43,000 deserving young people by providing nearly $48 million in grants.
Over the past 60 years, NEED has been a pacesetter to overcome historical disparities that have left minorities and the underserved at a tremendous disadvantage. The organization has developed a legacy that includes valuable college and career access for our region’s youth, as well as powerful mentoring and workforce diversity programs and an established educational tour to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Special thank you to the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania (ESWP) for allowing us to film at the awesome venue in Pittsburgh.