EECS Juneteenth: Celebrating Excellence and Innovation for an AI Future

The Michigan Engineering community is invited to attend the sixth annual EECS Juneteenth Celebration on Thursday, June 19, at 11:00 a.m. in the Arthur Miller Theatre* in the Walgreen Drama Center, followed by lunch and additional performances in the Gerstacker Grove.

*Due to space restrictions in Arthur Miller Theatre, tickets for this event are limited and will be handed out on a first come, first served basis. Each attendee will receive a ticket to the program and a ticket for the food trucks.

The theme of this year’s event is Celebrating Excellence and Innovation for an AI Future. 

The program will include: 

• Live performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Nadia Johnson (School of Music Theatre and Dance) accompanied on piano by Herbert Winful (EECS)
• Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by members of the Graduate Society of Black Engineers and Scientists   
• Fireside chat with Erin Teague (BSE CE ’04, MBA – Harvard ’08), Chief Product Officer, Character.ai, moderated by Prof. Julie Simmons Ivy, Department Chair of Industrial and Operations Engineering
• Remarks by EECS department leaders 
• Presentation of the ECE Willie Hobbs Moore Alumni Lectureship award to Erin Teague 
• Finale – Choreographed performance of “Rise Up” by Nadia Johnson (voice) and Alana Howard (SMTD-dance) 

The EECS department has partnered with three food trucks – Good Eats, Nacho Average Tostado, and Motor City Sweet Treats, to offer lunch in the Gerstacker Grove. Guests will choose between Good Eats and Nacho Average Tostado for lunch, and can get dessert from Motor City as well. 

Guests will also be treated to a carillon performance by university carrolinist Prof. Tiffany Ng, as well as a performance by Bichini Bia Congo Dance Theater Company.

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, is a national holiday that marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, announced the end of the Civil War, and freed 250,000 slaves in Texas. This was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed slaves in the Confederate states. Juneteenth is considered by many as the country’s second independence day. 

About our keynote speaker: 

Erin Teague is the Chief Product Officer at Character.AI, where she leads product development and user experience. Before joining Character.AI, Erin held several senior leadership roles at Google and YouTube, where she contributed to major product initiatives such as Google Search, Ads, Gemini, YouTube’s Virtual and Augmented Reality, and YouTube VR. Her most recent role at Google was as Technical Advisor to the Senior Vice President, overseeing products for Search, Ads, Maps, Gemini, Assistant, shopping, and payments. At YouTube, she served as Senior Director & Global Head of Sports, Movies, and Shows Product Management.