Kimberly Moore Wires Chicago — and the Next Generation of Black Engineers
Let me tell you about Kimberly Moore.
In electrical engineering, the corner office is still a rare sight for a Black woman. Moore didn’t wait for that door to open — she drew up her own blueprints and built one of the largest Black woman-owned electrical engineering firms in the country.
The Work
Moore is the founder of KDM Engineering, a Chicago-headquartered electrical engineering firm that has grown into one of the biggest Black woman-owned engineering practices in the United States. The firm competes for serious infrastructure and building work in a sector where Black-owned businesses remain underrepresented — and it has scaled in part by partnering with established industry players, including a 2021 collaboration with engineering giant Burns & McDonnell that broadened electrical services and extended KDM’s reach. Alliances like that are how a smaller, specialized firm earns a seat at tables usually reserved for the giants.
But her footprint reaches past the project list. Moore has made mentorship a centerpiece of her career, sharing her engineering expertise with underrepresented young people across Chicago and working to widen the pipeline into STEM. The *Chicago Sun-Times* spotlighted that mission, profiling how she brings engineering to students who rarely see someone who looks like them in the field. NBC 5 Chicago has likewise featured her as a STEM advocate whose influence extends beyond engineering into other ventures and philanthropy.
The Roots
Moore built her company in Chicago — a city with a deep bench of engineering and industrial talent and a long tradition of Black-owned firms serving major infrastructure. Her climb tracks the hardest transition in any technical business: moving from doing the engineering to owning the enterprise that delivers it, hiring and scaling and competing for contracts against far larger rivals. That she turned a specialized practice into a firm that partners with the giants is the whole point. And building at home, hiring at home, turns a company into a community asset.
Why You Should Know Her
Because KDM is proof of concept. Black women own a small share of the nation’s engineering firms, and Moore built one large enough to stand alongside industry heavyweights. She then spent her platform making sure the next engineer doesn’t have to start from zero. Scale plus mentorship is how representation stops being a slogan and becomes infrastructure — and KDM is what that looks like on the ground in Chicago. When people ask what Black ownership looks like in a technical field, Moore is one of the clearest answers.
Quick facts
- Founder of KDM Engineering, headquartered in Chicago
- One of the largest Black woman-owned electrical engineering firms in the U.S.
- Expanded through a partnership with Burns & McDonnell (2021)
- A STEM mentor to underrepresented Chicago youth
- Featured by the *Chicago Sun-Times*, NBC 5 Chicago and Shoppe Black
📸 Photo: Shoppe Black
*Black Future Year celebrates Black excellence all year long.*
