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"The Advisory Council for Women (ACW), an employee resource group at JPL, is important to me because it's a resource for educating, empowering, and enabling women for success in the 21st century workplace." Meet Vanessa, a Project Resource Analyst originally from Alabama, who grew up surrounded by space exploration and NASA. Prior to joining JPL and becoming involved in ACW's leadership in 2017, Vanessa worked at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for nine years. In her current role, she manages agreements and interfaces between the Interplanetary Network Directorate and its customers to prepare services to space missions provided by the Deep Space Network (DSN)!
"My favorite thing about what I do at JPL is getting to play a critical part in making complex 'first-of-a-kind' systems happen." Meet MiMi, the Mars Helicopter Project Manager, who joined JPL over 29 years ago immediately upon graduating with her M.S. in Electrical Engineering. Having grown up in Burma and later Malaysia, MiMi came to JPL for deep space exploration opportunities. From working on signal processing to spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control, MiMi has transitioned through various responsibilities to find her role today, where she's taken the Mars Helicopter from concept through testing to being integrated onto the Mars 2020 Rover! "When I was younger, I was encouraged to think twice about pursuing a STEM field, but I was fascinated with the idea of making complex things work. In school, I loved working on equations. After entering the workplace, I got to transform those equations into real 'first-of-a-kind' systems, and it has been a fantastic, fulfilling career! Any woman with interest in a STEM career should pursue it without any reservation."
"I love being in awe over the people that I work with. It’s incredible the amount of brain power that goes into successfully building, launching, navigating, landing, and operating on the surface of Mars." Meet Moogega, a Planetary Protection Lead Engineer for the Mars 2020 Mission, who knew she wanted to work for NASA since she was in middle school. Moogega's path to JPL started at age 16 with a student research role. Several NASA Langley Co-ops and a NASA fellowship later, she became a JPL Postdoc. Moogega has now been at JPL for over nine years and works to ensure that we keep Mars clean while exploring it. Her team samples every piece of hardware that gets bolted together for the Mars 2020 rover to ensure that we explore responsibly and keep environmental impact to a minimum!
"I'm involved with JPL's Advisory Council for Women (ACW) because I strongly support the employee resource group’s goal to raise awareness of issues that affect women and other minorities in the workplace." Meet Priyanka, a Mission Planning Systems Engineer whose passion for growing the number of women in STEM sparked her involvement on ACW's board. Growing up in New Delhi, Priyanka studied Mechanical Engineering and Planetary Science before becoming a Postdoc at JPL. Today, she gets to work at the interface of science and engineering, developing timelines and observation plans for the NISAR flight project, an Earth-orbiting radar satellite, in addition to creating formulation studies for future planetary missions!
"I fell in love with the people, culture, and work at JPL." Meet Katie, a Business Administration Manager for the Spacecraft Mechanical Engineering section, who first started at JPL as an intern during her senior year of college over eight years ago. Within her first year, she knew she wanted to become a Business Manager. In her role, she oversees the business team that supports her section, working on strategic planning and serving as the point-of-contact for 330+ engineers for various needs. Her passion for female empowerment also led to her years of involvement in co-leading the Advisory Council for Women, an employee resource group at JPL that is always striving to bring about positive change. "I love that ACW is open to and educates all employees that want to help empower women."
In honor of International Women's Day, check out some of our brilliant women in STEM! At JPL, diversity and inclusion are more than worthy ideals – they are mission-critical necessities. Explore our open opportunities → http://glassdoor.com/slink.htm?key=vMAoc
“I studied Computer Science because of the influential people in my life that encouraged me to pursue something that I love to do every day and would make me happy.” Meet Na’Kaila, a Computer Security Engineer whose passion for computer science stemmed from her twelve-year-old self staying up every night customizing and programming her personal social media profiles! Originally from Pittsburgh, she first began at JPL as an intern and was hired as an employee after her internship completion in 2017. Currently, she works within the Cybersecurity / Identity Technologies & Operations group and is an active member within the African African Resource team, an employee resource group at JPL.
"My curiosity led me to ask my parents endless questions about the work at JPL, and my father, who was a Civil Engineer for the City of Pasadena, guided me into my wonderful career here." Meet Lionel, a Group Supervisor for the Electronic Security Group who started at JPL as an IT computer technician in 1991 before getting hired as an employee in 2005. Today, he leads the African American Resource Team, an employee resource group at JPL, and provides physical security risk management for the entire Laboratory.
"I create music that fuses hip-hop and math as a tool to encourage underprivileged youth to explore STEM." Meet Dajae, a Quality Engineer originally from St. Louis who just celebrated her one year anniversary at JPL! Prior to being hired as an employee, Dajae was a summer intern who was inspired by an event she attended hosted by the African American Resource Team, an employee resource group at JPL. Today, she serves on the board and continues to find ways to bridge her love for art and music with her love for engineering.
"I could be seen as a product of the space age." Meet Charles, the Special Advisor for Small Spacecraft Missions whose passion for engineering led him to Princeton and Rensselaer where he also became a world-class bassoonist! Born in Long Island where his father worked on the Apollo mission, Charles joined JPL's Instruments Division in 1998 where he spent most of his career on high performance computational science and program management. Currently, he advises NASA on cross-agency strategy for development of innovative small spacecraft missions.
