STEM Community Leader Named Outstanding Woman of the Tennessee Valley

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Latoya Dorsey is a hometown girl. She is passionate about her family and helping children achieve their dreams… not to mention that she is also an engineer.

Her husband, Carl Dorsey, submitted a beautiful nomination letter for Remarkable Women, and she absolutely captured the hearts of our judges. Here’s a look at why Latoya was chosen as the 2023 Outstanding Woman of the Year in the Tennessee Valley.

The nomination letter highlighted her endless love for her family and her husband, but also highlighted the incredible work she does for the children of the Tennessee Valley.

Latoya, a woman who admitted to “hating math” growing up, ended up graduating in math and becoming an engineer.

“I was not very good at maths and at the time I really hated it. But my parents found a lady who offered tutoring services. So I worked with her for years and my passion for maths just got bigger,” Layota told News 19 chief meteorologist Danielle Dozier.

Layota’s childhood tutor inspired a higher purpose and she began tutoring children on her own.

Tutoring turned into advocacy for STEM education – Layota, as president of the National Society of Black Engineers, saw an opportunity.

She helped organize the association’s annual robotics camp which is offered at a select elementary school in the Huntsville/Madison County area.

“When we started the robotics camp, we had 50 students and we had to bill them. We presented the information to the schools in the city of Huntsville… And at that point they decided to go ahead and start funding the camp. Four or five years later, we had 400 young children.

For Layota, it’s about raising children and young adults. She’s worked with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and even middle schoolers, doing mock interviews with them and preparing for their careers.

Layota has impacted thousands of children in the community and likely changed some of their lives. She says hearing the children’s success stories encourages her to keep going.

“It’s a joy when the children come back. I think over the years, a lot of errands and things that I’ve done, I was a single mom at the time. His children also served as motivation.

Layota had two daughters and she wanted them to see that they could go out and do those things too. “Being an African American woman in STEM, there wasn’t a lot of that, I couldn’t see other people like me there,” Layota said. “I wanted to make sure my daughters could see this and know that they can go out there and do this stuff.”

When asked what advice she had for young women, her words were, “Keep striving, try to do everything and don’t let anyone discourage you.” (We think that’s good advice!)

As part of its Remarkable Woman 2023 recognition, News 19 is donating $1,000 in her name to the nonprofit of her choice.

Who did Latoya choose? News 19 will have this update Thursday on News 19 at 10 p.m.

If you missed any of News 19’s stories about our Remarkable Women winners, read them here.