NewsChannel 13 continues to honor Black History Month with a look at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s first African-American president.

Shirley Ann Jackson made history in 1999, when she became the 18^th president of RPI.
That was not her first historical achievement. In 1973, she became the first Black woman to receive a doctorate from MIT. In 1995, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to lead the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At that point, she became the first Black woman to hold that role.

She stepped down as president of the university in June 2022, after 23 years.