Queen of Cars

The General Motors (GM) assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan, is a busy place. Inside the sprawling factory, cars move through a giant assembly line. People work alongside thousands of machines to put each car part in place, from the engine and seat belts to the metal exterior. GM has more than 120 such factories around the world. They crank out 9 million vehicles every year!

Alicia Boler Davis knows these factories well. She started her career as an engineer at GM. She went on to become the first African-American woman to manage a GM factory in Texas.

Today, Boler Davis is the company’s vice president of global manufacturing. A big part of her job is to make sure each of GM’s plants produces cars safely and efficiently.  

General Motors (GM) has many huge assembly plants. The largest is in Detroit, Michigan. It’s a busy place. Cars move through a giant assembly line. People work with thousands of machines. They put each car part in place. That includes everything from the engine to seat belts. GM has more than 120 similar factories. They’re found around the world. They make 9 million vehicles every year!  

Alicia Boler Davis knows these factories well. She started her career as an engineer at GM. She went on to manage a GM factory in Texas. She was the first African-American woman to ever do so. She’s a vice president at GM today. She runs a part of the company that builds cars. She makes sure GM’s plants make cars safely and easily.

Boler Davis has always been curious about how things work. Growing up, she loved to repair her family’s broken toasters, radios, and other appliances. “The more complex it was, the more exciting it was for me to take it apart and put it back together,” she says.

Math and science were always Boler Davis’s favorite school subjects. But when a teacher suggested that she pursue engineering as a career, she didn’t know what the job involved. Later, she got the chance to watch an engineer at work designing cars. She knew she’d found the career for her.

In college, Boler Davis was one of just two African-Americans and one of only a few women in her engineering program. But the students’ differences didn’t affect their work, she says. “Everyone was willing to help each other.”  

Boler Davis has always been curious about how things work. She loved to repair broken things as a kid. She fixed toasters, radios, and other gadgets. “The more complex it was, the more exciting it was for me to take it apart and put it back together,” she says.

Math and science were Boler Davis’s favorite school subjects. A teacher said she should think about engineering as a career. She didn’t know much about this job. Then she got the chance to watch an engineer at work creating cars. She knew she’d found the career for her.

Boler Davis studied engineering in college. She was one of just two African-Americans in her program. And there were only a few women. But the students’ differences didn’t affect their work. “Everyone was willing to help each other,” says Boler Davis.