The Women of NASA

by Kiyomi Appleton Gaines

THIS SUMMER, NASA WILL LAUNCH the SLS (Space Launch System) megarocket as the start of the Artemis space program. The Artemis program aims to establish an ongoing human presence on the moon and to send the first woman and person of color to the lunar surface by 2024. This lunar base will be our launchpad to the next giant leap for humankind - Mars and beyond!

NASA hasn’t yet announced the four-person crew who will next set foot on the moon. But three Women of NASA live right here in our own community.

Born and raised in Louisiana, Sallie Bilbo wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as a career when she left high school. In college, she came across an internship with the Public Affairs Office at Stennis Space Center.

“I’m not one of those that ever thought, I want to work for NASA,” she says. “I didn’t know I could work for the agency, because I wasn’t interested in those STEM careers. Of course, that’s largely what is associated with NASA. I didn’t know it was an opportunity for me until I got here, and I realized there were all kinds of support careers I could go into.”

Bilbo, who now leads the Office of Communications, stresses that NASA is a place for people of all different interests and backgrounds.

“For somebody like me, I liked math, but I didn’t want to do that as a career. It’s great to do STEM! But if you’re not necessarily leaning towards those career goals, there’s a lot of other ways and different career paths you could take. There’s still room for people to work here.”

“We have quite a few internship programs,” Bilbo adds. “That opens the door to all those different fields, to give students exposure to what it is we actually do. Students can get hands-on work experience. That’s what happened for me, and I love being able to work for an agency that does the stuff NASA does.”

Katrina Emery, Director for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Stennis Space Center and the NASA Shared Services Center.

Katrina Emery, Director for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Stennis Space Center and the NASA Shared Services Center, grew up in Compton, California. But her parents were from Alexandria, Louisiana. She returned to the state and followed in their footsteps to attend Southern University. Emery’s early career focused on connecting minority students to opportunities in STEM. She credits mentors from that time with encouraging her to apply for a NASA fellowship that would send her back to California.

“The work dealing with diversity started on the campus of Southern University in trying to provide opportunities for students. But it expanded when I went to NASA and started working with historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, and tribal colleges, fostering that relationship between the university and NASA.”

Since that time, Emery has returned to Louisiana, and her NASA career has shifted focus from students to employees. “The work I do now is about retention of the workforce, making sure we have a diversity that actually reflects America.”

She continues, “When I started my career, I was on one side of the relationship building, working with the universities. Now I’m on the other side, [helping] our employees work with those same types of institutions. I’m making sure they have everything they need so everyone can contribute to our mission. Because at NASA, we are all NASA.”

Dr. Renee Horton’s dream had always been to work for NASA.

“We would pass the rest stop area where the NASA Center is in Mississippi. My dad would stop and allow my imagination to go wild,” she says. “When I was nine, I got a telescope. It was the first time I realized there was so much more in the world besides me, and I wanted to be able to know and be a part of that. I kind of knew then I wanted to work for NASA.”

Throughout her childhood, Dr. Horton’s goal was to go into the Air Force ROTC, become a pilot, and then apply for the astronaut corps. But that wasn’t to be. “At 18, I actually found out I was hearing disabled,” she shares. “And it was a bilateral hearing loss, and I didn’t qualify to be an astronaut. I wasn’t able to do that. At the time, I never thought about what else I would want to do. I just knew [NASA] was what I wanted, and I thought that was gonna happen.”

It wouldn’t be until a decade later, after the birth of her daughter, that she would return to school at LSU to chart a new path to her dream. “When I gave birth to my daughter, [she] triggered all the, ‘You need to be changing the world for her.’”

After finishing her undergraduate work in two years on a vocational rehabilitation scholarship, she started graduate school. There she came to understand the full extent of her hearing loss and sought the support of the LSU Speech and Hearing Foundation.

She went on to earn a Ph.D. in material sciences with a concentration in physics on a NASA fellowship. “That work became my dissertation, and that’s what’s on the SLS now. When it launches, my dissertation will launch.”

“I’m very, very proud of that work,” Dr. Horton says. “The idea that that’s going to be the rocket that sends the next man and the first woman to the moon and possibly the first African American to the moon excites me and warms me to my core.”

Dr. Horton’s current work, which brought her to California and back again, is focused on developing electric aircraft. “We are looking at changing the way flight is being done with these electric-powered engines.”

Easily, the best part of the job, they all agree, is being able to contribute to something so much bigger than any of us can do individually.

“That’s the neat thing about NASA,” Katrina Emery says, “because we do work with those astronauts, the scientists, the engineers, and the creations they make. I’ve enjoyed seeing that. And we do our best to make sure we are highlighting all of NASA, to make sure everyone’s contributions are celebrated. And, again, underscoring we are all NASA, and we have something significant to contribute to the mission.”

Sallie Bilbo, Stennis Space Center’s Communications Office team leader.

“The stuff we do is so cool,” Sallie Bilbo’s excitement is tangible, “no other organization does it. To say we’re part of this, even though I might not be touching the hardware specifically, I still have a small role in our missions. I used to travel to Kennedy Space Center, and I’ve seen quite a few shuttle launches. I’m so looking forward to that again when we start launching the Artemis program. To know I’m a very small part of the program that’s going to send humans back to the moon, and specifically, the first woman—that’s worthy that we put a woman and the first person of color on the moon. The Apollo program was all white males. So, looking forward through Artemis returning to the moon, and eventually, to Mars, the stuff we do is so rewarding, and it’s exciting.”

“My favorite thing about working for NASA is the work we do isn’t just for us,” Dr. Horton says. “It’s not just for NASA, it’s for humankind. We are promoting something so much bigger than us.”

For those who might be the next generation at NASA, or reach for the stars in some other way, all three say not to count yourself out just because your experience may not be in perfect alignment at first glance.

“Decide what it is you’d like to do and definitely pursue that as hard as you can. Don’t discount that,” says Sallie Bilbo. “We’re all needed, especially working for NASA, we need all kinds of people, we need all kinds of jobs.”

Katrina Emery says, “Everything you do at school is developing your skills to be able to get promoted to that next level. Take challenging courses, don’t settle for mediocrity. Not every student is going to be an A student, but make sure you are doing your best, and always try to improve.”

“And mentors are so key,” she adds “They didn’t identify these opportunities for themselves, they did it for me. I communicated my interests and they listened. When they saw the opportunity, they said my name was written all over it. What I learned from that is nothing beats a failure but a try. And don’t be afraid to network, build relationships, those are so key within the organization. As I got more comfortable, that allowed people to connect with me and know who I am and for me to know who they are. And that’s what diversity and inclusion is all about.”

“If it’s your dream, don’t let anybody deter it,” Dr. Horton says. “When I think about the idea that I wanted to work for NASA and then my life came full circle again. My very first position at NASA, they allowed us to put our names on a test article. There was a moment in time when my name, my kids’ names, my parents’ names, my sister’s name went into space. That was my dream come true. I wanted to go to space and a piece of me went. What I realized is each time I’m working on something, it’s another piece of my dream coming true. And that feeling alone with everything else I’ve been through, good or bad, the satisfaction is more than I could have ever dreamed imaginable. To be able to know you had a hand in that. If it’s their dream, I’m gonna tell them to endure.”