Canton, Ohio to swear in first African American fire chief

The city of Canton, Ohio will make history on Monday April 26, 2021 when the first African American Fire Chief, Akbar Bennet is officially sworn into office.

Rory Gamble named UAW President, becomes first African American to lead union

The UAW (United Auto Workers) International Executive Board met on December 5th and named Acting President Rory Gamble to fill the vacancy of President until the June 2022 Convention. Gamble becomes the first African American to lead the union.

“This is an honor to complete my career and serve the members of this great union in this capacity,” said Gamble. “This wasn’t planned and it is a tall order. There are difficult decisions that will need to be made in the coming months for our members. But I promise one thing, when I retire and turn over this office, we will deliver a clean union on solid footing.”

Gamble, 64, spent 12 years as Director of Region 1A before being elected Vice President and appointed to head the Ford Department in 2018.

In his initial three weeks, Gamble moved swiftly as Acting President, coalescing the IEB around a series of ethics reforms, including appointing an outside Chief Ethics Office; an internal ombudsman; policy changes; a clawback provision to recover misspent money; new financial controls including auditing and identifying and implementing stronger financial management practices.

“Together, our members, local leaders and our Board have an opportunity to set the UAW on a course for generations,” said Gamble. “There are many opportunities through new technology; new jobs; new organizing drives and collective bargaining gains to lift up our families, our communities and the middle class. We are in this together as we work through these changes and challenges.

The IEB will fill Gamble’s Vice President vacancy in January.

NASA’s Johnson Center Appoints First Black Deputy Director

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Director Mark Geyer announced Wednesday the selection of Vanessa Wyche as the next deputy director of Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Wyche will assist Geyer in leading one of NASA’s largest installations, which has nearly 10,000 civil service and contractor employees – including those at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico – and a broad range of human spaceflight activities.

“Vanessa has a deep background at JSC with significant program experience in almost all of the human spaceflight programs that have been hosted here,” Geyer said. “She is respected at NASA, has built agency-wide relationships throughout her nearly three-decade career and will serve JSC well as we continue to lead human space exploration in Houston.”

Wyche recently served as director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate (EISD) and completed a detail as the JSC deputy director in February 2018.

“I am incredibly humbled to take on this role at JSC, and also excited to assist Mark with leading the home of human spaceflight,” Wyche said. “I look forward to working with the talented employees at JSC as we work toward our mission of taking humans farther into the solar system.”

Before joining JSC in 1989, Wyche worked for the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C. She began her career with NASA in the Space Life Sciences Directorate as a project engineer. She has held several key center leadership positions including assistant center director, associate director of EISD and acting director of Human Exploration Development Support.

She also served in the Constellation Program as director of operations and test integration and in the Space Shuttle Program as a flight manager for several space shuttle missions. She was manager of the Mission Integration Office, and she completed a detail in the Office of the NASA Administrator.

A South Carolina native, Wyche is a graduate of Clemson University with both a bachelor of science in materials engineering and a master of science in bioengineering. Wyche is the recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals. Wyche is the first African-American to hold the JSC deputy director position.

For more information about Wyche, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/people/orgs/bios/wyche.html