About Dr. Jakita O. Thomas

For more than two decades, Dr. Jakita O. Thomas has worked at a crossing point most computing researchers still treat as separate roads: the technical rigor of computer science and the lived realities of Black girls and women navigating STEM. Her career is built on the conviction that these conversations belong in the same room.

Academic Foundation and Vision

Dr. Thomas earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, with a concentration in Learning Sciences and Technology. Before Georgia Tech, she completed her undergraduate studies at Spelman College — an experience that shaped how she thinks about intellectual community and who gets to claim the title of computer scientist.

Today she serves as the Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Her vision is direct: build computing environments where intersectional identity is treated as a source of insight rather than an obstacle to be managed.

That framing runs through every course she teaches and every paper she publishes.

Mission to Diversify STEM

The mission is simple to state and harder to live out. Dr. Thomas works to expand pathways into computing for Black girls and other students historically pushed to the margins of the field. The work happens in classrooms, in summer programs, in research labs, and in the slower spaces of mentorship that rarely show up on a CV.

One of her longest-running commitments is Supporting Computational Algorithmic Thinking (SCAT), a multi-year project that follows Black middle and high school girls as they design complex computational artifacts — games, simulations, interactive media. SCAT is not a one-week camp. It is a longitudinal study of how computational thinking develops when young women are given time, tools, and trust.

Scope of Research and Advocacy

Dr. Thomas's scholarship sits at the intersection of computer science education, the learning sciences, and intersectional theory drawn from Black feminist thought. Her published work appears in venues including the Journal of the Learning Sciences, ACM Transactions on Computing Education, and the proceedings of SIGCSE and ICER. She has been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award, the work continuing under federal support since 2016.

The advocacy side is just as substantive. It includes congressional briefings on broadening participation, expert testimony, and steady contributions to national conversations about algorithmic justice and equitable AI.

Our Collaborative Network

No serious work in broadening participation happens alone. Dr. Thomas collaborates with K–12 districts, HBCUs, community-based organizations, and federal research agencies. The longest-standing partnerships include sustained engagement with Spelman College, ongoing NSF-funded research collaborations, and work with regional school systems across Alabama and Georgia.

These relationships are deliberately slow-built. A summer cohort becomes a research site. Over time, that research site becomes a teacher professional development partnership. From there, a teacher partnership becomes a district policy conversation. The throughline is consistency over years, not visibility in any single moment.

One honest qualifier worth naming: the pipeline metaphor in STEM equity work has real limits. Pipelines assume the destination is fixed and the only problem is flow. Much of Dr. Thomas's research argues the opposite — that computing itself must change as more intersectional voices enter it. That premise shapes how the collaborative network is built and which questions it chooses to ask.

To discuss research collaborations, speaking invitations, or program partnerships, visit Contact & Booking.