Oliver McGee served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering in the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University from 2001 to 2005, marking a historic milestone as the first African American to achieve a full professorship and department chair position in the university's engineering faculty. A distinguished alumnus of Ohio State, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering there in 1981, during which time he became only the second African American drum major of The Ohio State University Marching Band. McGee furthered his academic training with a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1983, a PhD in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Arizona in 1988, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2004, and a Certificate of Professional Development from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

Throughout his career, McGee held pivotal roles across academia, government, and nonprofit organizations, exemplifying leadership in engineering education and policy. Early positions included Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Ohio State University and Associate Professor of Civil and Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He served as Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1995 to 1998, Special Assistant to the President at Georgia Tech from 1997 to 2001, Senior Policy Adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1997 to 1999, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Technology Policy from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Subsequent appointments encompassed Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the United Negro College Fund from 2006 to 2007, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Vice President for Research and Compliance at Howard University from 2007 to 2016, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech University from 2016 to 2017. His research specializations included computational mechanics, coupled finite element and boundary element methodologies, aerothermomechanics of aircraft engines, and interdisciplinary design optimization of civil and aerospace structural systems. Among his major honors, McGee received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award from 1991 to 1996 and served on the NSF Advisory Committee for Engineering from 1998 to 2002. Under his chairmanship at Ohio State, the department was awarded the Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award for outstanding recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty, significantly advancing diversity initiatives in engineering.