STEM for Her Woman of the Year: Aisha Bowe

Aisha Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, a global motivational speaker, and the founder and CEO of STEM Board—which she bootstrapped into an eight-figure engineering powerhouse specializing in data analytics and IT modernization for large enterprises. The award-winning firm has been recognized in the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing companies in America.

A serial entrepreneur who is passionate about empowering students to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), Aisha raised over $1.6 million to create LINGO, a self-paced coding kit for learning technical concepts at home. Currently used by over 5,000 students in 10 countries, LINGO has clients that include tech giants such as Microsoft, along with nonprofits, HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities), and federal organizations. 

Thanks to her work for NASA, Aisha already has an array of achievements relating to space exploration. However, in 2023, she is set to become an astronaut herself—and will be part of the first-ever spaceflight crew composed entirely of African-American women. The Blue Origin flight also will make her the first Bahamian in space.

Aisha—whose journey to the stars began with a pre-algebra class in community college—has shared her inspiring story in interviews and presentations around the world as part of the State Department’s U.S. Speaker Program. She holds a B.S.E in Aerospace Engineering and an M. Eng. in Space Systems Engineering from the University of Michigan, and sits on the university’s Aerospace Department Industry Advisory Board.