First Thrive, Then Lead

The murder of George Floyd catalyzed global awareness of systemic racism and reignited calls for diversity and inclusivity, including in engineering. It highlighted how the legacies of slavery and colonialism persist through neoliberalism and racial capitalism. However, this momentum has waned, with backlash threatening the rollback of critical equity efforts. Superficial inclusivity initiatives are insufficient, but abandoning them entirely risks perpetuating historical and ongoing harms. Current approaches to fostering awareness of colonial impacts, particularly in engineering, inadequately prepare students to meaningfully engage with systemic inequities. We present First Thrive, Then Lead, a transformative framework for engineering education emphasizing mental health and well-being—for educators and students—as foundational to decolonization. This approach addresses how colonial legacies manifest in engineering and critiques dominant paradigms, such as socio-technical dualism, meritocracy, and depoliticization, which hinder meaningful engagement with systemic inequities. Through classroom and extracurricular applications, we demonstrate the potential of First Thrive, Then Lead to foster leadership rooted in empathy, systemic awareness, and transformational change. We call on the engineering community to confront its complicity in structural inequities and adopt practices that prioritize collective healing and justice, essential for the future of engineering education. Updated with minor typographical corrections: June 30, 2025.