Janet Emerson Bashen
Janet Emerson Bashen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Janet Rita Emerson February 12, 1957 |
| Alma mater | University of Houston (BS), Tulane Law School (MJ-LEL), The University of Southern California (Doctorate) |
| Occupation(s) | Software inventor, businesswoman |
| Employer | Bashen Corporation |
| Known for | First African American woman to patent a web-based EEO software (Nalikah, formerly known as LinkLine) |
| Spouses | Ruffus Williams
(m. 1979; div. 1988)George Steven Bashen
(m. 1988) |
| Children | 2 |
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Janet Rita Bashen (née Emerson; born February 12, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, business consultant, and software inventor. Bashen is best known for patenting a web-based EEO software application, LinkLine, now known as Nalikah, to assist with equal employment opportunity investigations and claims tracking. Bashen is regarded as the first African American woman to obtain a web-based software patent.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Janet Rita Emerson was born on February 12, 1957, in Mansfield, Ohio to James Lucker Emerson Sr., a garbage collector, and Ola Mae Emerson, a nurse.[2] Emerson's family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where Emerson went to a segregated elementary school until the fifth grade when she entered Fifth Avenue School, a previously segregated school in Huntsville, Alabama.
She married George Steven Bashen in 1988. They have two children.
Career
[edit]Bashen attended Alabama A&M a Historical Black College and University but did not graduate. Emerson enrolled in the University of Houston and graduated with a degree in Legal Studies and Government. Dr. Bashen attended Harvard University. Bashen is also a graduate of Tulane Law School. Bashen received a doctorate from USC's Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
After graduating from the University of Houston, Bashen worked for an insurance company handling claims related to Equal Employment Opportunities.[2][3][4] Bashen would later receive a $5,000 loan from her mother and in 1994, began her own company, Bashen Corporation, to investigate discrimination claims filed by employees.[5][4]
As her company grew, Bashen became aware of the need for better ways of storing and accessing the data related to claims.[5][4] With her cousin, Donnie Moore, a Tufts University computer science graduate, Bashen began developing a software.[2][5][4] This was the genesis for the software Nalikah, previously known as LinkLine. In January 2006, Bashen was awarded a Patent No. 6,985,922, B1, making her the first African-American woman to earn a web-based software patent.
Congressional testimony
[edit]In May 2000, Bashen testified before the U.S. House of Representatives that civil rights and employee misconduct investigations should be exempt from the Fair Credit Reporting Act.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Bashen Patent". Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Bashen, Janet Emerson (1957– ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". blackpast.org. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
- ^ a b "H.R. 3408—THE FAIR CREDIT REPORTING AMENDMENTS ACT OF 1999". Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Fourtané, Susan (May 24, 2018). "Black Inventors – The Complete List of Genius Black American (African American) Inventors, Scientists, and Engineers with Their Revolutionary Inventions That Changed the World and Impacted History – Part Two". Interesting Engineering. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
- ^ a b c Lynn, Samara (February 9, 2016). "How Janet Bashen Became a Software Pioneer". Black Enterprise. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
- Living people
- 1957 births
- 21st-century American inventors
- African-American business executives
- American women business executives
- African-American inventors
- American women inventors
- 21st-century African-American businesspeople
- 21st-century African-American women
- 20th-century African-American businesspeople
- 20th-century African-American women