President
The Jemison Group, Inc.

Mae C. Jemison, M.D., blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992, as the world's first African American woman to go into space. Born in Decatur, Alabama and raised in Chicago, she entered Stanford University as a scholarship student at age 16. After graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an A.B. in African and Afro-American Studies she earned her doctorate in medicine at Cornell University Medical College. Prior to her six years as an astronaut (1987-1993), Dr. Jemison served two and a half years as a Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia and practiced medicine in Los Angeles. After NASA, she founded the technology consulting firm, The Jemison Group, Inc., to consider socio-cultural impacts when designing technologies. As an environmental studies professor at Dartmouth College, she taught courses on sustainable development and technology design. Her latest business venture, BioSentient Corporation, focuses on physiological monitoring to improve health and human performance.

A strong, committed voice for science literacy, in 1994 Jemison founded the international science camp The Earth We Share® for students 12-16 years old. In her book Find Where the Wind Goes, she writes for teenagers about growing up on the south side of Chicago, cultivating her aspiration to be a scientist and professional dancer, her experiences as a medical student in Africa, and her history-making journey into space.

She is currently Chair of the Texas State Product Development and Small Business Incubator Board; Chair of Texas State Biotechnology and Life Science Industry Cluster; She is a member of the Board of Directors of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Scholastic, Inc; and Valspar Corporation, Advisory Board MD Anderson, Board Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science and Board Member National Institute of Bio Merging and Bio-Engineering. She was an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, an inductee of National Women's Hall of Fame and the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, and winner of the Kilby Science Award. In 1993 she was chosen one of People Magazine's "World's 50 Most Beautiful People" and in 1999 she was selected as one of the top seven women leaders most likely to become President of the United States.

Dr. Jemison resides in Houston and loves cats.