Mrs. Yvonne Y. Clark, PE
Professor, Mechanical Engineering

In 1947, Mrs. Clark was accepted at the University of Louisville but was not allowed to attend because of her race. Instead, the State of Kentucky paid her tuition to attend Howard University. She was the first woman to graduate from Howard University's Mechanical Engineering Program and to be hired at Ford Motor Company's Glass Plant, Nashville, TN, and first African American woman to earn the Master of Science Degree from Vanderbilt University's Engineering Management Program. In 1952, Mrs. Clark became the first African American member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In 1956, she became the first woman engineer ever hired as an Instructor at Tennessee State University in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. She has been a faculty member since 1956, Head of Mechanical Engineering, and now Assoc. Prof., after 50 years!! Her research projects, funded by the Department of Energy, include "Energy Usage Monitoring of Residential and Commercial Structures" (1984 - 1987) and "Experimental Evaluation of the Performance of Alternative Refrigerants in Heat Pump Cycles" (1987 - 1996). She has been Director of NASA's National Aerospace Fellowship Program. At TSU, Yvonne has chartered student chapters for ASME, SWE, ASRAE, pi Tau Sigma National Mechanical Honorary chapter. She is a TSU link of the "Order of the Engineer".