High Point native works to make high-tech more inclusive

Kate Robins, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·3 min read

Jun. 17—HIGH POINT — Visiting High Point always resurfaces fond memories for Melonie Parker.

It's here where she remembers spending time with her family at places like the YMCA or City Lake Park and hopping on a city bus to explore her love for reading at the High Point Public Library.

Parker, who now serves as the chief diversity officer for Google, got the chance to revisit these memories and forge some new ones this past week as she returned to her hometown.

At Google, Parker has been collaborating with in order to expose more Black and Hispanic students to developing forms of technology.

For the past three years, Google and North Carolina A&T State University have been working together to build a Google Annex in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research & Innovation Complex on campus. The annex will open this fall and will give students participating in Google's Tech Exchange program and Google-In-Residence instructors access to collaborative projects and professional development events.

"We can't find enough computer scientists for all of the work that's not just available now but in the future," Parker said. "What this building will produce are innovative, creative, motivated engineers that are going to fill critical roles, not only at Google but across the tech industry and other industries as well."

When she was growing up, Parker said, she never had enough access to resources, preventing her from understanding what jobs could be available to her.

"The person I was as a little girl just didn't have enough dreams because I didn't have enough access and opportunity to know that these are the types of roles that exist," Parker said.

It wasn't until she got her first taste of corporate America that she found networking and having a mentor to give her guidance would help her career.

"The way that I was raised in High Point was I had to be better, faster, smarter to compete at average, which actually never sat right with me," Parker said. "I was very achievement-focused, and that was how I was groomed because that was the formula for success."

Before joining Google, Parker was the first Black woman to serve as the vice president of human resources and communication at Sandia National Laboratories.

Throughout her career, she has also acquired numerous accolades, including a Special Recognition Award at the Women of Color STEM Awards in 2014 and being named as one of Savoy magazine's 2023 most influential executives in diversity and inclusion.

For her, working to reduce inequality in her field has become what she is most passionate about.

"My goal is to ensure that everyone that works at Google has the same or similar lived experience, has the same opportunity to progress, same opportunity to get hired." Parker said.

As for the Google Annex at A&T, she said she hopes that students can be confident about their impact in the workforce.

"I'm excited that people will come here and they will be inspired," Parker said. "That is the most important thing is they will find their own superpower and the unique gifts that they have to make the world a better place."