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Vickie Gutierrez
One of Vickie’s earliest memories of growing up in San Antonio, Texas is being in a kindergarten class and watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Her teacher chose to include her class in what would become a defining moment in history.
2015 -
Maria Revlett
Maria was born in Chiclayo, a small town in Peru. Now, she works at NASA as a Program Analyst for the Launch Services Program. Her road to NASA has not been easy, but it has been full of determination and will power.
2015 -
Rosalind Cylar
Growing up in the inner city of the Bronx, New York, Rosalind had no idea she would work for NASA. Her mother, sister and she lived in a small apartment with her aunt and uncle. But, as a young girl, she always knew she wanted to be a lawyer.
2015 -
Rena Perwien
Since Rena’s parents could not afford to pay for any of her college costs, she worked her way through school as a waitress. When she started at the University of Minnesota, she wanted to be a Forest Ranger because she loved the outdoors. Working at NASA never entered her mind.
2015 -
Raymonda Yeh
Raymonda was born in Kiev, Ukraine and her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was 6 with only $1,500 to begin their life anew. Raymonda is a fifth generation member of a deaf family and started school in the United States at the age of 8, knowing no English.
2015 -
Ying Shi
During Ying’s recent visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she took a selfie with Ms. Curiosity–a full size model of Curiosity Mars Rover. She believes they share the same characteristic—always curious about what is going on in space, what is happening on other planets, and whether there is another Earth.
2015 -
Suzanne Honeycutt
One evening in September of 1991, the earth shook, the sky burst into a huge glow, and the loud rumbling sound lingered what seemed like for hours. Actually lasting only minutes, that was Suzanne’s first viewing of a space shuttle launch. Not knowing what to expect since it was dark outside, she didn’t bother bringing a camera or binoculars. But the sight of that glowing magical masterpiece still burns in her memory.
2015 -
Venetia Gonzales
Venetia was very determined to go as far in her career as she could, but she never imagined she would work for NASA. She always wanted to become an artist, but there were many obstacles she would have to overcome to become a successful artist. yet, Venetia was very determined to go beyond the limits to what was offered to her as a young girl and not become just another statistic.
2015 -
Karen Meinert
When Karen was a young girl growing up in Milan, Ohio, her father took her to NASA’s Plum Brook Station Open House in the early 1970’s to see a moon rock. She never imagined on her tour that day that she would grow up to have a NASA career.
2015 -
Donna Lawson
Despite growing up in Newport News, Virginia, the neighboring city of NASA Langley Research Center, and developing a love for space and academics, Donna never dreamt that she would one day work at NASA.
2015 -
Tuesday Dodson
Tuesday Dodson was young, unemployed and needed work. Her inspiration for working with NASA came from her oldest sister. She was at NASA when the Challenger tragedy happened and it helped to shape her into a proud and dedicated employee who truly understands that NASA is a place where she could make a difference.
2015 -
Sandra Duncan
Having lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast all of her life, Sandra remembers coming to Stennis Space Center on a field trip with her elementary school many years ago. She remembers the first day as an employee at Stennis Space Center, driving through the South Gate and the moment she saw the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sign by the entrance gate. To say she was excited was an understatement.
2015 -
Helen Vaccaro
When Helen was in elementary school, she vividly remembers watching the movie Apollo 13 and being so intrigued – she wanted to be one of those people in Mission Control solving technical problems for the astronauts.
2015 -
Cynthia Stemple
Cynthia never had aspirations to be an engineer or become a manager. She simply took steps that were shaped by caring people and took a life-altering detour. As a result, her career unfolded before her.
2015 -
Kate McMurtry
Kate was never certain what she wanted to be when she grew up. She enjoyed science, had a desire to serve in the military, and wanted to go to college. She struggled with how to put her interests together. During her junior year, she found some direction. She took a multiple-aptitude test that measured developed abilities and helped predict future academic and occupational success in the military.
2015 -
Mai Lee Chang
As a child, Mai Lee did not envision working for NASA or becoming an engineer. She was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand, the oldest of four children. Her family were refugees of the Vietnam War and settled in the U.S. in 1992 when she was six years old. Mai Lee started school only knowing one English word – “restroom”.
2015 -
Sarah Noble
Sarah Noble grew up in rural Minnesota, where from a very young age she was fascinated with space exploration, staring up at the moon and making plans to visit it one day.
2015 -
Dava Newman
Dava remembers watching multiple moon landings on TV in her hometown of Helena, Montana and being fascinated that human beings could actually be walking on the moon that she saw from her backyard. From the moon, Dava’s attention turned to the solar system and stars, of which there are many visible in Big Sky country. She learned to dream, to explore, and that nature and machines had much to teach her.
2015 -
Seunghee Lee
When Seunghee Lee’s parents told her about the decision to immigrate to America, she was not happy. She was 17 years old and didn’t want to leave all her friends in South Korea and was afraid of moving to a foreign country that spoke a different language. Although English is taught in South Korean schools, it was limited to reading and writing simple sentences with no speaking lessons.
2015 -
Gail Villanueva
Growing up as the daughter of a military officer, Gail had what some might consider a privileged life. They lived all over the world, and she had the opportunity to see and experience an abundance of this world’s great offerings and be exposed to many cultures that benefitted her throughout her life.
2015 -
Maynette Smith
Star Trek spurred Maynette’s interest in space. While a little too young to remember watching John F. Kennedy talk about the United States sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to the Earth, the memory of the crew of Apollo 8 reading from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon on Christmas Eve still resonates with her. At 8 years of age, she sat with her father watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. From that point on, Maynette dreamed of working for NASA.
2015 -
Courtney Ritz
Shortly after birth, Courtney was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer caused by a genetic defect. She became a patient at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where she underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Despite the numerous out-of-state trips for treatments by exceptional doctors and nurses, and the removal of the cancer itself, she eventually lost her eyesight completely around the age of five. But Courtney retained a vivid memory of shapes and colors. Despite her vision loss, she could turn the corner of any room into a spaceship or an alien planet.
2015 -
Diep Nguyen
Diep Nguyen’s life took a major detour on the morning of April 30, 1975, when she boarded a helicopter piloted by a friend—now her husband—with the intention of spending the weekend with her mother
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Toni Mumford
For Toni Mumford, a “positive attitude and a willingness to take risks” … really paid off in career at NASA
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Gwendolyn Young
Gwen Young was a military brat and moved a lot during her childhood. Making friends was difficult, but a young Gwen found solace in school, excelling in math and science.
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Anita Douglas
As the mother of three daughters and spouse to a NASA employee, Anita Douglas had to quickly learn how to balance work and family without compromising either. Today, in addition to having a rewarding home life, all three of her daughters are in college.
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Caroline To
The stories of Vietnamese Boat People had begun soon after April 1975. This story was also a part of Caroline’s life.
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Sarah Dewitt
Sarah spent four years falling in love with the natural world. As a geology major, she spent the bulk of her college career exploring national parks, volcanoes, and canyons all over the western United States. But when it came time to graduate, she faced a tough realization. She did not want to pursue a career in science. She did not have the burning desire to get a Ph.D. or be a professor. She just wanted to be outside.
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Ginger Kerrick
As a child, Ginger Kerrick dreamed of growing up to be either a basketball player or an astronaut. When neither dream came to fruition, Ms. Kerrick developed a fresh perspective – best summed up by the phrase “It just wasn’t meant to be” – and is today part of NASA, serving in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a Flight Director.
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Wendy Pennington
Wendy Pennington discovered her natural passion and inclination for engineering while enrolled in a mechanical drafting class in high school. While her love of drawing and design provided an architectural roadmap for her future, it was the encouragement and guidance of the teachers who recognized this young woman’s special talents that put her life on a trajectory that would land her at NASA, where she continues to be inspired and challenged to reach even greater heights.
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Katie Boyles
Born and raised in a suburb outside of Sacramento, California, Katie grew up in a close-knit family and had a very happy childhood. She absolutely loved school and learning, and when she was in 5th grade, Katie had the opportunity to attend a week of Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama which sparked her love of NASA.
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Pamela Marcum
Pamela Marcum’s journey to becoming a NASA scientist began in a rural coal-mining community in eastern Kentucky. A public school system weak in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curriculum, and a lack of mentors to provide career guidance resulted in her path being everything but a well-chartered course to a pre-defined destination.
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Janelle Holt
Despite being a Houston, Texas native, Janelle Holt thought that only engineers and scientists could work for NASA. She was introduced to NASA career possibilities for business students during a Career Fair at her alma mater, the University of Houston.
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Tracy Caldwell-Dyson
At the age of 16, Tracy Caldwell Dyson—like so many others—found an admirable role model in certain teacher who had accomplished the seemingly impossible. “Christa McAuliffe inspired me to search and reach for a goal that I thought was unreachable,” Caldwell Dyson said, even though at the time she had no idea how to get there.
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Quiana Reese
Quiana Reese was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, but admits to not knowing that there was a NASA facility in Cleveland, located right next to the airport which she had frequented often.
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Huy Tran
While Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the surface of the moon, a 6-year-old girl named Huy Tran was climbing a tree. She wanted to climb high enough to watch the historical event unfold through a part in the palm roof of someone else’s home in Vietnam, and she achieved that goal.
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QuynhGiao Nguyen
When QuynhGiao Nguyen immigrated from Vietnam to the United States at age 7, she didn’t speak a word of English and had no idea she would grow up to be a NASA scientist.
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Rhonda Baker
Rhonda Baker knew at an early age she wanted to work for the federal government. She just wasn’t sure in what capacity. She had a great deal of admiration and respect for the such occupations since many members of her family served in the military and worked as civil servants.
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Ramona Travis
For Ramona Travis, her ultimate destination had little to do with astrology, and everything to do with commitment, drive, and a natural curiosity about our own Earth and what’s beyond.
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Laurie Grindle
As an engineer and a project manager working in aircraft flight research, Laurie Grindle is familiar with the saying: “You can learn more from failure than success.”
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Amy Bower
Being open to new opportunities has brought Amy Bower many great adventures. Growing up in a rural community in central Ohio, she explored the farm, the fields and the surrounding woods. She loved school, especially math and science.
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Terrian Nowden
Before coming to NASA, Terrian Nowden worked part-time in the Co-operative Education Office of the junior college she’d been attending. One of her duties was to receive incoming calls from employers who wanted to list co-op positions for the students. When NASA Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center (GRC) at Lewis Field) called to post various technician positions, she was very excited.
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Loria West
When Loria West was 9 years old, she suffered the loss of her parents in a tragic car accident. That same accident left her paralyzed from the waist down; however, her new circumstances did nothing to slow her down
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Jennifer Heldmann
Jennifer Heldmann studies recent water on Mars through spacecraft data analysis, numerical modeling, and fieldwork in Mars-analog environments. Perhaps more exciting for her personally are her studies into the moon, with “a focus on improving our understanding of the lunar poles.”
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Becky Murray
NASA has been part of Becky Murray’s life since she was born-literally! Becky NASA story began at her childhood home as the daughter of an Apollo-era engineer. At a young age, she knew she wanted to be part of the extraordinary NASA family.
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Linda McCain
Linda’s earliest memory of space was hearing about the Russians and Sputnik and monkeys flying in space. The world was much different then. There was no Internet or Google. Television offerings were limited, but this was big news at the time. Little did she know that one day NASA would be in her future.
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Mia Siochi
Seeming coincidences may not be accidental. Giving a lab tour to a seminar speaker led to Mia Siochi coming to NASA Langley Research Center when that speaker happened to be the head of the Composites and Polymers Branch who was looking for someone to support its polymers characterization need of the branch.
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Catherine Bahm
Catherine’s road to NASA began at an early age when she declared, in front of her classmates, that she wanted to be the first female astronaut. A young male student rebutted that girls could not become astronauts. Her teacher would have nothing of it, immediately looking at Ms. Bahm and ensuring she knew she could be whatever she wanted to be.
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Jill Noble
If someone were to try to keep up with all of Jill Noble’s activities, accomplishments, and contributions to the community, they’d need a more powerful machine that even NASA could build. They would also need a positive outlook, a strong moral compass, and an impeccable work ethic—qualities her parents instilled in her, early on.
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Deborah Amato
Maybe it is not surprising that Deborah ended up in engineering. Growing up, she loved math and science in school. Algebra is one of her favorite things. There is also the influence of her family: her dad is an electrical engineer and her mom is a chemist.
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Julie Kramer White
Julie Kramer White demonstrated mechanical aptitude at a young age. She was the one who owned and treasured her toolbox; the one asked to fix the washer, the recliner or whatever was broken.
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Latonia Kirksey
Growing up on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Latonia Kirksey always had a desire to live her life as an opportunity to make a difference in the world. She was fortunate to have a loving family and the chance to grow up in a small and friendly community where everyone knew each other. She continually received encouragement from her family, friends, and members of her church which motivated her to try to make the most out of her life.
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Tahani Amer
Tahani Amer discovered her natural passion and inclination for engineering while watching her father fixing his car’s engine as she sat inside her small Egyptian apartment. While her love of math created a clear path for a mechanical and aerospace engineering future, it was great teachers and her father that encouraged and guided Dr. Amer.
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Rosemary Baize
Rosemary Baize began her career in 1988, working as an aerospace technologist in wind tunnels at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. She supported tests on Pegasus boosters, was a project engineer and served as a facility safety head. But she didn’t stop there.
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Crystal Jones
For Crystal Leathers Jones, growing up surrounded by drugs, crime and poverty made her dreams of working for NASA seem unreachable. Through her determination, hard work and perseverance, Crystal was able to change the course of her life and blaze a path of success that her siblings and others growing up in similar situations could follow.
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Annette Moore
Growing up with six siblings, Annette Moore quickly grasped the appreciation for working as a team. Today she employs the principles she learned as a child in working with her NASA teammates in helping to accomplish the mission of the Agency.
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Anna Turner
Anna Turner’s first day at NASA was exciting. Every step was well organized and professional. She could tell that working at NASA was going to be different than any previous job.
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Maria Nowak
Maria Nowak’s search for a broader meaning in life took her from the floor of a 1950s-themed restaurant where she worked as a dancing waitress, to the esteemed grounds of NASA where she has taken a leading role in the field of physics.
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Pamela Bourque
Growing up in a small Cajun town in Louisiana, Pam Bourque had no idea that she would one day become an attorney and work for NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center. As a child she loved school, and her parents encouraged her to work hard so she could get a scholarship to college.
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Anne-Marie Novo-Gradac
Anne-Marie Novo-Gradac is a planner—one who puts an extraordinary amount of effort into mapping out what should happen next in life. So perhaps it’s a bit ironic that all planning in the world ultimately landed her in a career that she never dreamed she would achieve
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Michelle Haupt
From the time she was a little girl, Michelle Haupt has loved flying on airplanes. As she grew, she wondered what it would be like to travel in space. She discovered that mathematics was her favorite school subject. These interests led Haupt’s decision in seventh grade to become an aerospace engineer.
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Rula Coroneos
Rula Coroneos was born in Crete, Greece and immigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah in her junior year of high school. Even though her English was limited, she understood and studied mathematics—the universal language of science—with ease.
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Nancy Holloway
One of Nancy’s earliest memories of NASA was in 1969 when her mom anxiously called her inside the house to look at the television. At the time, Nancy assumed adults could do almost anything, and she wondered why her mother made such a big deal about it. It was not until Nancy became an adult that she finally realized what a monumental achievement sending a man to moon really was.
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Charmel Jones
For Charmel Jones, the journey to NASA was unexpected. Although she strived to be an engineer since the age of 10, she never imagined in a million years that she would be, or could ever be, a part of the NASA family. Growing up in a single-parent household in Palmetto, Fla., Ms. Jones was faced with the stereotypical persona that she would not amount to anything because of growing up in an “unbalanced” family.
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Tiffaney Miller Alexander
Tiffaney Miller Alexander knew by the time she was in sixth grade that she wanted to become an electrical engineer. Sparked by her interest to know how electronic devices worked coupled with the inspiration of her mother becoming the first in her family to earn a college degree, overcome a battle with cancer, and her faith in God, Tiffaney believed she had a great motivational example of determination and resilience to help her along her career journey.
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Julie Williams-Byrd
Taking advantage of opportunities and challenges has been the mantra for Julie Williams-Byrd’s career at NASA. These opportunities have allowed Ms. Williams-Byrd the ability to excel and to experience the career of a lifetime by working on exciting projects and working with exceptionally talented people from a variety of disciplines.
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Lelia Vann
For Lelia Vann, moving forward in her life meant stepping back from everything she had worked so hard to accomplish, and asking the big question: Why?
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Connie Snapp
Connie Snapp aspired to be an artist and a writer with the long-ago dream of writing and illustrating her own books. She would never have predicted that she would one day work for NASA.
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Robin Henderson
Robin Henderson’s life changed forever and for the better when, in her first year of college, a man offered her the opportunity to serve as a co-op student with Martin Marietta, then a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center contractor
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Christine Belcastro
Christine Belcastro long aspired to become an engineer but, as a female, thought the door was closed to her. Imagine her thrill when a college counselor enabled her to cross the threshold into NASA as an electrical engineer.
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Beverly Girten
Beverly Girten knew at an early age that she wanted to work for NASA. Through her mother’s encouragement and her deep curiosity about science in general and space in particular, and her strong work ethic, she was able to get a solid education.
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Kathleen Howell
The daughter of an educator and an aeronautical engineer, Kathleen Howell grew up in southern California with varied influences, among them interests in dance, mathematics and aviation.
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Jeanette Le
Jeanette Le’s road to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California started in Vietnam, which she, with her parents, fled when she was 8 years old – leaving Ms. Le with the feeling that she is, in her own words, the eternal “new kid on the block.”
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Hashima Hasan
Hashima Hasan’s love for space started when as a five-year old she stood in her grand parents’ backyard in India and watched Sputnik go by overhead. She had no idea how she would achieve her dream to become a scientist and attend Oxford University, as her uncle and grand uncles had done. But achieve it, she did.
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Cindy Leitell
Joining the workforce at the early age of 16, Cindy Leitell didn’t realize at that time that she’d entered into what would be her career.
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Mary Lobo
Growing up as both a left-brained and right-brained child led Mary Lobo to excel in both academics and the arts, but it was her mother who influenced her to keep her artistic endeavors as hobbies and pursue a career as an engineer.
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Tresa Mitchell
Tresa Mitchell knew from the time she was a very little girl that she had a devout passion for two things: drag racing and NASA.
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Mary Ann Esfandiari
For Mary Ann, her path to NASA began as a cooperative education (co-op) student in 1974. She hailed from the University of Maryland in College Park as she found her place at NASA. Little did she know that she would lead two careers, one at NASA and one in the Navy Reserve.
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Monica Ceruti
For Monica Ceruti, the trick has been to learn how to balance work and family without compromising either. Today, in addition to having a rewarding home life, her two sons are on the road to having rewarding careers: her oldest son is a college graduate and her youngest son is a cadet at the United States Coast Guard Academy.
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Elia Ordonez
For Elia Ordóñez, giving back to her native Hispanic community is paramount in her life. Ms. Ordóñez was born in Moctezuma, Chihuahua, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States in 1974.
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Melanie Saunders
Melanie Saunders found out, in the most joyous way, that “work-life” balance can be tipped – in triplicate – in the direction of “life” when she discovered that she was pregnant with triplets. Being the high achiever she has always been, Ms. Saunders found a way to put family first without putting her career on permanent leave.
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Sylvia Johnson
Sylvia was born in Sydney, Australia to a family that had a great interest in science. Although she has four brothers, Sylvia was the one most interested in pursuing a scientific career. However, that was easier said than done in those times in a country where women were not that common in science and especially in physical sciences and engineering.
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Katharine Lee
When Katharine was young, she wanted to be a doctor or some kind of scientist. Katharine feels that she was lucky growing up-no one was trying to tell her that girls could not do anything they wanted to do or that girls should only be in certain careers. If anyone did say that, Katharine certainly wasn’t listening.
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Karen Gundy-Burlet
For Karen Gundy-Burlet, Walter Cronkite’s broadcasts of the Apollo moon missions were particularly inspirational. The thrill of watching the moon landings and excursions extended her interest in aircraft to the aerospace field and a desire to work for NASA.
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Judith Bruner
Judy Bruner grew up in rural Ohio, where she developed an early love of space and aviation, which would become the cornerstones of her future professional life. Her love of space began as she peered through a small telescope in the backyard looking at the moon and then followed NASA’s journey to the first moon landing.
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Chana Johnson
Chana Johnson grew up in Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, and is a daughter of educators. So it probably wasn’t a surprise when Chana’s affinity for math and science combined with her curiosity about how things work to lead her to an engineering degree and, eventually, a career at NASA.
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Karen Rodriguez
Karen Rodriguez is known as a talented project manager. But as a teenage mom, she was often told she would never amount to anything. With determination, dedication, and the support of her husband, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University.
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Julie Ann RiveraPerez
While growing up in Puerto Rico, Julie Ann Rivera Perez never imagined she would work for NASA. Most people might say they could only hope or dream to work for NASA, but Ms. Rivera never even imagined it would be her who would eventually get a job in what is now the #1 Place to Work in the Federal Government.
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Misty Davies
For Misty Davies, it was all about making the world a better place. She grew up wanting to be a veterinarian, a writer, a mother, and a scientist.
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Jill Marlowe
In elementary school, Jill was that girl who loved Barbies, but mostly because she was all about modifying and constructing new and improved versions of her ‘Dream House’ from whatever she could find. Her family spent most of their weekends sailing together on the Chesapeake Bay. Looking back now, she realizes that it was her desire to design and build improved structures and her respect for teamwork that led her to find her dream career in aerospace engineering.
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Roberta Sherrard
As a child, one of Roberta’s favorite memories was when her whole family gathered around the TV to watch the Apollo missions to the moon. She vividly remembers when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong said those magic words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
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Charlene Butler
When Charlene Butler was growing up, she, along with many other young people, thought that it would be cool to work for NASA one day. Little would she have guessed that her dream would begin to unfold during ninth grade for it was in Ms. Butler’s freshman year that she decided on a career in the Computer/Information Technology (IT) field.
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Victoria Garcia
Growing up, Victoria Garcia had a knack for being the “handyman” of the family. Being deaf and a daughter of Cuban immigrants motivated her to work hard to prove herself. Today, she uses her problem solving skills performing analysis as a system engineer.
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Valerie Zellmer
As Valerie looks back on her life and career, all she can say is “not bad for a farm girl from Wisconsin. ” She cannot say she ever dreamed of working for NASA; however, she is extremely thankful that her journeys led her here. Her career choices did not seem to be suitable for the highly technical science and engineer-oriented agency. Yet, she was never so wrong. NASA encompasses all types of disciplines including education and accounting.
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Nikki Martin
Nikki’s greatest inspirations growing up were her parents. Neither had a college degree but they encouraged her and her siblings to do well in school. From a very early age, she knew that she was going to college.
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Karen Bibb
Aerodynamics has always fascinated Karen, although she didn’t know the term for it when she was younger. Throughout her life, Karen pursued this passion for aerodynamics. Her passion and the support she has received from teachers and mentors brought her to where she is today.
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Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger
Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindenburger, the daughter of two teachers with a love of the space program, has “The Right Stuff.” As a NASA astronaut who flew with the crew of STS-131 to the International Space Station, Ms. Metcalf-Lindenburger has risen to heights that make those of the Mile High City of Denver, in which she grew up, pale by comparison.
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Sharmila Bhattacharya
For Sharmila Bhattacharya, success is not measured by medals or money but by seeing her experiments flown in space, a dream of flight fuelled by her father, a pilot, who told her that being a girl would not deter her from earning a pilot’s license or from being “absolutely anything she wanted to be …”
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Clara Wright
Although Clara Wright had to learn a new language and adapt to a different culture and the age of 8, when her family moved from Colombia to the United States, she was always fluent in the language of hard work, perseverance, and integrity – thanks to the example set forth by her parents.
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Bonita Seaton
For Bonnie Seaton, the path to NASA was anything but straight-forward. She initially studied nursing at the State University of New York at Buffalo and after three years of study realized that nursing was not the right career path for her.
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Mary Coan
Mary grew up as the middle child surrounded by three sisters. Communication and prioritization was key to keep a peaceful home. From an early age, Mary set her goals high and set out to work for NASA as an Astronaut. Many children would change their minds but Mary never did.
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Teresa Foley-Batts
As a child, Teresa Foley-Batts really did not think about or plan her life toward any particular career. She was the oldest of five children, and after her parents divorced, the family moved from Nashville, Tenn. to Huntsville, Ala.
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Janet Petro
Janet Petro took an impressive step when, at the age of 17, she began leadership training at the highly esteemed United States Military Academy at West Point at a time when women had just begun to be accepted into the nation’s military academies.
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Valerie Meyers
Dr. Valerie Meyers was exposed to the idea of human spaceflight at family gatherings where her uncle, who worked at Link Flight Simulation in Houston, talked about his job developing simulators to train astronauts. Her personal journey to NASA began in fifth grade when an article in Weekly Reader magazine mentioned NASA would be looking for people with doctorate degrees in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and astronomy to work on a space station they were developing.
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Debra Zamostny
Debbie always wanted to play the piano. It was the love of her life. While other kids were playing outside, she was inside practicing. It was the same in music college and playing with the band. She missed countless parties, holidays, and many life-changing events because she was working. But the sacrifice was worth it for her.
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Laura Iraci
It seemed to Laura Iraci that kids always asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” as if there were one single right answer. It seemed as if “grown up” was a static condition, never changing. Laura did not have a single childhood passion that shaped her view of who she would be when she reached the destination called “grown up”.
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Cynthia Simmons
Cynthia Simmons remembers her fascination with space started early in life watching TV shows like Star Trek. Watching the first moon landing gave her more reason to dream of designing spaceships like the Starship Enterprise. At night, she would look at the stars imagining herself traveling in space spending a lifetime exploring.
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Andrea Meyer
Andrea Meyer’s life was changed irrevocably when, on one cold Nebraska morning while practicing emergency landing procedures with her flight instructor, her airplane went into a flat spin before crashing into an empty cornfield.
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Tricia Mack
In high school, when other students may have asked for a spring break trip to the beach, Tricia Mack asked to go to Florida to tour the Kennedy Space Center. She still remembers the tour and excitedly taking photos of the space shuttle launch pads (even empty). Years later, she’d actually work in the shuttle on the pad days before launch as part of her duties as an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) or “spacewalk” flight controller and instructor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.
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Corazon Millena
For Corazon Millena, NASA was an ocean away since she was born in the Philippines. Her family immigrated to the US in 1975 to San Jose, Calif., where she immediately secured a job as a customer service representative at J. C. Penny Co.
Site Last Updated: March 11, 2021
Page Editor: Mamta Patel Nagaraja
NASA Official: Mamta Patel Nagaraja