Underrepresented racial minority students often seek a high level of contact with professors of color, viewing them as role models and proof that success in higher education is possible. These faculty members are often able to connect with students of color in deep and meaningful ways based on shared experiences in higher education. That is, many professors of color once matriculated at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) where they encountered racist stereotypes and felt the same sense of isolation as some students of color they teach and mentor. Scholarship on faculty of color has focused largely on their lives as professors, addressing how their work is perceived, their experiences with colleagues, and the heavy teaching and service loads they often carry. Researchers have done comparatively less work on how these scholars have successfully negotiated various aspects of higher education. Considering the gap between minority student interest in STEM and actual rates of degree attainment in these fields, it is especially critical that the past experiences and current perspectives of minority faculty be better understood. Unfortunately, few studies have focused on how scholars of color stay motivated throughout their own educational and professional journeys. In this chapter, the authors add to a growing body of literature on persons of color who are reaching the highest levels of success in American higher education and actualizing their professional goals. Specifically, the authors' purpose is to uncover important factors that enable the success of Black professors in STEM. This chapter uncovers ways by which Black STEM professors overcame the hurdles that students of color often experience and managed to persist in their respective fields. Examining this group affords a glimpse into the experiences and resources that are key to academic attainment, informing efforts to improve the achievement of students at various junctures of the STEM academic pipeline. (Contains 1 table.)