2021 Cadillac CT5 Premium Luxury: A Segment Leader In Terms Of Quality

Highlight: The CT5 is based off a rear wheel drive configuration.

Test Vehicle's MSRP: $52,510 (Base Model: $38,190)

Seating Capacity: 5

Standard Safety Features: airbags; ABS; a stability control system; an automatic emergency braking; rear camera; a forward collision alert system; automatic braking system; a tire pressure monitoring system; a teen driver safety feature; and an OnStar

Crystal Windham: The Highest Ranking Black Female Car Designer On The Globe Talks 'Auto Trends' And More

Crystal Windham is the highest ranking black female in automotive design on the globe. In fact, as Cadillac’s interior design director, she has blazed a trail where no woman, who looks like her, has gone. While only a handful of Black men have cracked this ceiling, being in the upper echelon of car designers, as a Black woman, this creative force is the lone ranger.

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Highest Ranking Black Female Car Designer Reflects On What It Meant To Work Under Pioneer Designer Ed Welburn

Crystal Windham currently serves as director of design for Cadillac interiors. Windham is the first black female to hold the title and the highest ranking black female in the auto industry.  

For our one-year anniversary show, honoring pioneer designer Ed Welburn, who spent 44 years as a designer of General Motors, we reached out to a few individuals who were mentored by the trendsetter. Welburn was the highest ranking black auto executive in the industry before his retirement on July 1. To find out more about Welburn and our radio interview, which airs Saturdays this month, click here.

What has it meant to have Ed Welburn as your design leader?

Women History Month: Crystal Windham Changing The Design Game In The Industry

Although numerous studies acknowledge that women influence a significant portion of today’s new-vehicle sales. In black households, according to Marc Bland, the head of diversity at Polk, women control at least 49 percent of new-vehicle sales. Unfortunately, in many facets of the male-dominated automotive field, women continue to be underrepresented, especially when it comes to the design studios.

To kick off Women's History Month, we wanted to re-highlight one of the pioneers in the industry, Crystal Windham, who is only in her early 40s, is one of the highest ranking black female car designers.

Windham has managed to squeeze her way through the door of today’s design studios, holding her own and bringing a perspective that men just don’t have.

Crystal Windham: The Sister Behind GM's Trend-Setting Interiors

At one time, growing up in the suburbs of Detroit as an African American female meant you had two career options: work in the music industry for Motown or build cars for the "Big Three" -- GM, Ford and Chrysler. Since music wasn't the calling of Crystal Windham, the first African American female director in GM's design history (and in the auto industry), she decided to take the road less traveled by not building cars in a factory like many of our ancestors or working in a traditional administrative role typically expected of women.

Windham decided to buck the trend, operating in a field not normally occupied by women (African Americans or Hispanics for that matter). Furthermore, having Windham overseeing a design team is about as rare as finding a brother teaching elementary school.

Windham, who says she's a risk taker and driven like her mom (who is now deceased), became enamored with the auto industry after receiving a scholarship to take up an auto design class during her freshman year at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit (Ralph Gilles, lead designer of the Chrysler 300, and Earl Lucas, the exterior designer of the all-new Taurus, attended CCS, too).

While she found the class to be both challenging and rewarding, Windham immediately caught the bug -- itching to become an auto designer. To test her skills at auto designs, she accepted a summer internship with Ford before landing her dream job out of college with GM.

And unlike most Generation Xers, who have worked for several companies in the span of their professional careers, Windham has been loyal to GM (and GM has been loyal to her, too). Since joining the company, she has had several high-profile assignments, from living in Germany for a year to becoming the lead designer of the interior of the 2004 Chevy Malibu to her current appointment as director of North American passenger-car design.

In fact, while researching new trends in luxury purses such as Louis Vuitton, Windham came up with the award-winning two-tone upscale interior for the current generation Malibu, which has been praised by the industry and customers alike.

In addition to fashion influencing her car-interior designs, interface products like Blackberry cell phones and MP3 players have also helped the GM designer develop the Midas touch.

When Windham was asked what advice she would give to those looking to accomplish something outside of the norm, she suggested finding something you love and are passionate about. Stay open-minded, but never be afraid to ask for help even if it's from someone who doesn't look like you. Work hard. Have a positive support system. And be open to criticism -- within it, there's a message that shouldn't be ignored. Like Jesus was able to turn water into wine, Windham has used her fashion sense and love for tech gadgets to revolutionize the car industry.

GM's Car Designer: Using the Latest Trends

Find out how Crystal Windham is making history in the auto industry. To read more about her, click here . Windham also considers Michelle Obama to be one of her role models.