134 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine EDUCATION Now retired, Carolyn Crawford Chesnutt Thorsen commenced her educational career in 1964 as an assistant librarian for the Hartsville Memorial Library in South Carolina, where she developed a summer reading program for elementary school children. She subsequently served Darlington School System as a teacher of music, Hartsville School System as a teacher of mathematics and psychology, and DeKalb County School System in Georgia as a teacher of mathematics. In 1975, Ms. Thorsen began serving as assistant to the dean of engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, charged with recruiting minority students into engineering. This led to a 13-year tenure as founding director of the Southeastern Consortium for Minorities Engineering (SECME), Inc. Through this endeavor, Ms. Thorsen was instrumental in creating an effective program that encouraged Black high school students to pursue engineering and science degrees. In support of this effort, she received grants from Alfred P. Sloan, the Carnegie Corporation, BellSouth and the National Science Foundations, as well as NASA. To further develop Georgia Tech’s relationship with public school systems, Ms. Thorsen joined the College of Sciences in 1990 as associate director of the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC), where she was associate director until her retirement. In addition, she served on the advisory board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as a member of the genderequity expert panel for the U.S. Department of Education. In 1986, Ms. Thorsen was the recipient of the Reginald H. Jones Distinguished Service Award from the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. A professional organist and choir director in her spare time, Ms. Thorsen draws upon several advanced degrees. She received a BA from Agnes Scott College in 1955, an MEd from the University of South Carolina in 1972, and an MS from industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech in 1979. Among the many highlights of her career, she is exceptionally proud of establishing SECME, which has received much acclaim over the decades. CAROLYN CRAWFORD CHESNUTT THORSEN ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR (RETIRED) Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing Atlanta, GA
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