Deborah Washington Brown

Deborah Washington Brown was an American computer scientist and speech recognition researcher who worked at AT&T Bell Labs, and other companies for many years doing speech recognition research. She was the first black woman to earn a doctorate in computer science at Harvard University in 1981 from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She was one of the first black female computer scientists to graduate from a U. S. doctoral program. Mrs. Brown passed on June 5 after a long battle with cancer, her achievements and legacy remain as an inspiration for those who have followed in her footsteps.