Karl W. Reid, EdD, originally worked in the computer industry after graduating with bachelors and masters degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Inspired by Jonathon Kozol's Savage Inequalities, Reid switched to a career in education. He was employed at MIT-initially as a director of Engineering Outreach Programs and freshman advisor, and working up to associate dean and director of the Office of Minority Education-while attending the Harvard Graduate School of Education for his doctorate. He studied factors that contribute to success for black males in higher education.

In 2014 he was named executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers. The organization's current main goal is to end the underrepresentation of black engineers in the United States by 2025.

Born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Roosevelt, New York, Reid now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. He and his wife, Andrea Reid, MD, have three children and two labradoodles.