Janie L. Mines MBA '98 was the first and only African-American woman of the 81 women who entered the USNA in 1976, a year after the U.S. Congress authorized the admittance of women to its military service academies. In 1980, she became USNA's first African-American woman graduate, earning the rank of Ensign and an SB in general engineering. Mines served in a variety of roles in the U.S. Navy, including naval annex at The Pentagon and senior advisor on the staff of the Secretary of the Navy.

She left the Navy to earn an MBA from MIT, with a thesis entitled "Integrated Change Management" (1998). Mines went on to hold management positions in a variety of corporations and became a management consultant. In 2002, Mines was an Olympic Torchbearer.

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