Jessye Gaines has spent her 16-year career teaching 9th-12th grade engineering at Bob Jones High School and has spent the past ten years serving as Engineering Department Chair. Jessye seeks to bridge the gap between the classroom and industry by serving as engineering internship program director at her school. Since 2010, Jessye has successfully trained, found internships for, and overseen approximately 350 students with over 35 companies (including NASA, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Siemens). In her classroom, students solve real-world problems through project-based learning. Students are immersed in the engineering design process, mathematical models, computer-aided design 3D software, and statistics.
Jessye’s love of hands-on learning extends beyond the school day, as she coaches National Champion Greenpower USA teams. Her students design, build, and compete with single-seat electric cars across the southeastern United States as they apply engineering concepts learned in class, she has been coaching since 2015. Also in 2015 Jessye founded the second high school student chapter of Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in the state of Alabama to encourage and inspire young female students to pursue the STEM field and expand their horizons on available careers. In 2025, Jessye handed over the SWE club to one of her mentee teachers.
Jessye has a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University and Alternative Baccalaureate-Level Certification in Secondary Mathematics Education from Athens State University. Professionally, Jessye has served as a Society of Women Engineers national conference speaker and representative for congressional meetings on Capitol Hill around diversity and inclusion in STEM.
Throughout her career, she has been recognized with awards including; the White House Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2019, Madison City Schools Secondary Teacher of the Year for the 2020-2021 school year, Bob Jones High School Teacher of the Year for the 2019-2020 school year, Air Force Association Tennessee Valley Chapter Teacher of the Year in 2018, and Bob Jones High School Hall of Fame Inductee in 2016.