Mr. Brandon White works for the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) where he currently serves as the Center Technology Transition Lead responsible for managing its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I and II activities. Mr. White, whose background is in electrical engineering, got his start with GRC as an electrical power systems engineer. In that role, Mr. White supported various design and test activities where some of his most notable accomplishments include supporting the development of an Electrical Test Platform for the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle and the development of Solar Electric Propulsion hardware for NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster Commercial (NEXT-C) project. Mr. White also spent some time as a Reliability Engineer within NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.

Mr. White’s dedication to STEM expands far beyond the gates of NASA and into the neighborhoods of Cleveland. Mr. White has been a FIRST LEGO Robotics coach at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church for about a decade. Two of his proudest moments in life were leading his robotics team, whom he mentors with FBC partners Charles Doxley and Fransua Thomas, to the Ohio State Championships where they won the tournaments MLK Diversity Award and also a robotics tournament where he was selected to receive the FIRST Robotics Coach/Mentor award after being nominated for it by his team. Mr. White’s dedication to the community can also be seen in his mentorship with other programs such as the Greater Cleveland National Society of Black Engineers Jr. chapter and the True2U program which partners with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Looking back, when deciding on what he would choose as a major once he got to Alabama A&M University, Mr. White ultimately settled on electrical engineering because of the flexible and diverse career paths it could offer. However, through outreach efforts and mentorship – including some of the instances mentioned above, Mr. White discovered that many of the youth were not as familiar with all the possibilities that come with careers in STEM. Mr. White, along with Mr. Doxley and Mr. Thomas began to ponder ways that would allow them to interact with young minds and spark their interests in STEM. FBC Technical Solutions was formed as a vehicle to create opportunities for interaction, expose students to STEM, and equip them with the knowledge, tools and confidence needed to someday consider a STEM career.