Jerry
Heard
I worked six (6) years for the Kimberly Clark Corporation in Beech Island, South Carolina before joining the Mead Corporation in Dayton, Ohio in 1991. I enjoyed a very successful ten (10) year career with Mead as a Project Manager. I’m currently employed by the Smurfit-Stone Corporation in Stevenson, Alabama. Over the course of my career, I have managed many capital projects, ranging from $10,000 to install a new pump and foundations, to a $32,000,000 project that included a six (6) effect single line evaporator, a non-condensable gas system, and a condensate stripping system. In 1996, I worked with the University of Dayton to implement a Minority Engineering Program. I served on the MEP Advisory board from 1996 until I moved to Alabama in January 2001. I have been involved with SECME since 1977. As a student in high school, making good grades, I knew I wanted to do something other than graduate and go to work in a local factory. SECME gave me a vision and direction. SECME was like a road map. I knew where I wanted to go, but didn’t know how to get there. The SECME Guidance Counselor gave me magazines and papers about engineering and the role minorities would play in the upcoming future. The SECME Guidance Counselor helped develop the core class schedule I needed to take in order to get into Georgia Tech. He followed up with me to make sure I registered for the proper classes. I credit SECME with putting me on the right road, by giving me the right map. SINCERELY, |
My
name is Jerry Heard and I graduated in 1979 from Hart County High
School in Hartwell, Georgia. My high school was one of the first
pilot schools for the SECME model. After high school, I entered
Georgia Tech and graduated in 1985 with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering, with a Cooperative Education Certificate.