Who were your female role models growing up?
“My mother, actually, because she really instilled upon us the importance of getting a good education, and did everything she could to help us get a good education. For example, she moved from Philadelphia up to a suburb in Philadelphia, about an hour away from where she grew up, before I started kindergarten, so I could go to a better school system. She has been with me through all of my educational endeavors.”
Why do you believe it is important to get girls and young women interested in science?
“There’s just such a need for girls. There are so many more boys or males who are engineers and scientists and I just see even at Goddard more males than females. So it’s great to see girls interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and exciting to see female scientists. Even with me getting my PH.D. I don’t see that many female environmental scientists. So I think it’s important that we start at the middle school level or even earlier in getting girls interested in STEM careers and science.”
Can you tell me about any programs that you are currently working on to promote girls interests in science?
“Yes, I can! We’ve got a girls program called SISTERS. The program is a week long camp that is STEM focused for rising seventh and eighth grade girls. I think it’s a great week because not only are the girls exposed to STEM careers, but they’re also exposed to females in STEM because we try to get all of the presenters, scientists, and engineers to be female and present that to these young girls. It’s kind of neat that they get to see career inspiration, they get to find out what to do at NASA, and what missions we are working on. We also did a field trip to the Air and Space Museum. So it’s really neat to see these girls doing this week and another cool thing about this program is that we do a lot of follow up. Like with you, I mean you are interviewing me right now, that’s follow up. I also see a lot of the other girls do the other NASA programs such as Sunday Experiments and Family Science Night. It’s like one big family, so we keep in touch.”
Do you believe that Sally Ride’s success influenced women’s opportunities at NASA? If so, how?
“Yes, yes, yes, yes! Her just making the astronaut corp. I mean, it used to be such a male dominated profession and she broke the barriers and now there’s females, like me. Also, not only with NASA did she inspire girls to go into space. I have to say she inspired me to. After seeing her I actually wanted to be an astronaut. I applied to be one of the teachers to go up into space and I made the top ten percent, but I did not make the program. However, I am part of a program called NES (NASA Explorer Schools) where we can travel the country as teachers and talk to other teachers and the community about NASA. So, definitely. Not only that, Sally Ride also did some work outside of NASA. She had a STEM camp she would do and she would also have STEM days. So, she did a lot of things with NASA and outside of NASA with STEM for girls.”
How do you think Sally Ride changed NASA for both women and men?
“I just think her passion about science. I think girls, men, and women she inspired. They saw her being a phenomenal astronaut. Both boys and girls saw her in space. Honestly, I did a Sally Ride STEM Day at George Mason University in Virginia and she actually came to it. Large amounts of people have an event named after them and you never see them, but she actually came. Everyone was able to say hi, take pictures, and talk to her. It was really kind of neat. She was very personable. My brother in law is an educator and he just did a Sally Ride education camp for teachers. He just did that right before her passing. She is really going to be missed.”
As a woman working at NASA, how does it feel working in such a male dominated field?
“It’s kind of awesome to me. I just love to see more and more girls and more and more women working at NASA and getting involved with STEM. It’s also kind of neat when you are next to a guy that, though he’s not saying it, is thinking you can’t do that and you’re like yes, I can. It gives me that extra push to do better and give 110% with whatever I do.”
What do you think the future holds for women at NASA?
“I think we can do anything. I mean we have several NASA females in high positions. We have Lori Garver and different scientists and engineers that are female. I think we are moving up. I think we will have a female administrator in the near future. Women have been big stars here. We have a lot of women running NASA programs, who are division chiefs, and some of are finest scientists and engineers are teachers. I think there is no stopping us!”
“My mother, actually, because she really instilled upon us the importance of getting a good education, and did everything she could to help us get a good education. For example, she moved from Philadelphia up to a suburb in Philadelphia, about an hour away from where she grew up, before I started kindergarten, so I could go to a better school system. She has been with me through all of my educational endeavors.”
Why do you believe it is important to get girls and young women interested in science?
“There’s just such a need for girls. There are so many more boys or males who are engineers and scientists and I just see even at Goddard more males than females. So it’s great to see girls interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and exciting to see female scientists. Even with me getting my PH.D. I don’t see that many female environmental scientists. So I think it’s important that we start at the middle school level or even earlier in getting girls interested in STEM careers and science.”
Can you tell me about any programs that you are currently working on to promote girls interests in science?
“Yes, I can! We’ve got a girls program called SISTERS. The program is a week long camp that is STEM focused for rising seventh and eighth grade girls. I think it’s a great week because not only are the girls exposed to STEM careers, but they’re also exposed to females in STEM because we try to get all of the presenters, scientists, and engineers to be female and present that to these young girls. It’s kind of neat that they get to see career inspiration, they get to find out what to do at NASA, and what missions we are working on. We also did a field trip to the Air and Space Museum. So it’s really neat to see these girls doing this week and another cool thing about this program is that we do a lot of follow up. Like with you, I mean you are interviewing me right now, that’s follow up. I also see a lot of the other girls do the other NASA programs such as Sunday Experiments and Family Science Night. It’s like one big family, so we keep in touch.”
Do you believe that Sally Ride’s success influenced women’s opportunities at NASA? If so, how?
“Yes, yes, yes, yes! Her just making the astronaut corp. I mean, it used to be such a male dominated profession and she broke the barriers and now there’s females, like me. Also, not only with NASA did she inspire girls to go into space. I have to say she inspired me to. After seeing her I actually wanted to be an astronaut. I applied to be one of the teachers to go up into space and I made the top ten percent, but I did not make the program. However, I am part of a program called NES (NASA Explorer Schools) where we can travel the country as teachers and talk to other teachers and the community about NASA. So, definitely. Not only that, Sally Ride also did some work outside of NASA. She had a STEM camp she would do and she would also have STEM days. So, she did a lot of things with NASA and outside of NASA with STEM for girls.”
How do you think Sally Ride changed NASA for both women and men?
“I just think her passion about science. I think girls, men, and women she inspired. They saw her being a phenomenal astronaut. Both boys and girls saw her in space. Honestly, I did a Sally Ride STEM Day at George Mason University in Virginia and she actually came to it. Large amounts of people have an event named after them and you never see them, but she actually came. Everyone was able to say hi, take pictures, and talk to her. It was really kind of neat. She was very personable. My brother in law is an educator and he just did a Sally Ride education camp for teachers. He just did that right before her passing. She is really going to be missed.”
As a woman working at NASA, how does it feel working in such a male dominated field?
“It’s kind of awesome to me. I just love to see more and more girls and more and more women working at NASA and getting involved with STEM. It’s also kind of neat when you are next to a guy that, though he’s not saying it, is thinking you can’t do that and you’re like yes, I can. It gives me that extra push to do better and give 110% with whatever I do.”
What do you think the future holds for women at NASA?
“I think we can do anything. I mean we have several NASA females in high positions. We have Lori Garver and different scientists and engineers that are female. I think we are moving up. I think we will have a female administrator in the near future. Women have been big stars here. We have a lot of women running NASA programs, who are division chiefs, and some of are finest scientists and engineers are teachers. I think there is no stopping us!”