For our final Black History Month spotlight, we will be highlighting a pioneer in the fields of environmental engineering and sustainability, Dr. Lilia Abron – the first black woman to earn a PhD in chemical engineering and start an environmental engineering firm!
Dr. Abron was born in 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee. Raised in the segregated South, she was always told by her parents that the key to a successful future was to get a good education. She grew up aspiring to become a doctor or chemist, but after reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, she realized her true passion was environmental engineering (then called sanitary engineering). At age 21, she got her BS in chemistry from LeMoyne College in Memphis, Tennessee. Two years later, she obtained her MS in sanitary engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri as one of only two women in the school’s graduate engineering program. In 1972, Dr. Lilia Abron earned her doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa, becoming the first black woman with a PhD in the subject.
After completing her education, Dr. Abron had some difficulty finding environmental engineering positions. She briefly worked as an environmental chemist at the Kansas City Water Department and the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Chicago before turning to academia, where she spent a few years as an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, and Howard University. As a black woman, Dr. Abron faced many barriers to advancement while teaching, despite her expertise and dedication to the field. This turned her away from academia and motivated her to start her own environmental engineering firm, making her the first black person to ever do so.
In 1978, Dr. Lilia Abron founded PEER Consultants P.C., a full-service environmental engineering consulting firm in Washington, DC that transforms communities using sustainable practices. She was one of the first engineering professionals to advocate for and successfully demonstrate that sustainability initiatives could quickly improve conditions for impoverished people around the globe. Dr. Abron founded PEER Africa in 1995 to support this belief, focusing on sustainable development and design in Africa. One of the most notable projects to come from this venture was the transformation of Witsand, a small coastal community in South Africa. Once a shantytown with over 2,000 shacks, poor living conditions, and a lack of access to basic services, Witsand is now a thriving community home to over 2,600 families living in affordable and energy-efficient homes thanks to PEER.
Today, Dr. Abron is a member of the American Water Works Association, the Water Environmental Federation, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Association of University Women. In 2004, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2020 to the National Academy of Engineering for her sustainability leadership in the US and Africa. She is also president of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists and serves on the National Sciences Foundation’s Engineering Advisory Board. Dr. Abron has dedicated her life to using her expertise in civil engineering and sustainability to help advance communities in need. She is an incredible leader in her field, and her work is an inspiration to engineers and scientists around the world. As we close out Black History Month and look toward Women’s History Month, let us remember and celebrate the amazing contributions of black women in STEM!