Why it matters: If you have been on a virtual call recently (and who hasn't?), you can thank Marian Croak, who is being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for being one of the pioneers behind Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which makes it all possible. Croak and Dr. Patricia Bath, whose invention vaporizes cataracts via a 1-millimeter hole, are the first two Black women to be inducted into the NIHF (Bath is receiving hers posthumously). Maybe someday such diversity will be so commonplace that it won't merit a mention like this.
