07.25.08

Angela Storey 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
256-544-0034 
angela.d.storey@nasa.govRELEASE: 08-089

NASA MARSHALL CENTER ENGINEER AND MONTGOMERY, ALA., NATIVE ELAINE FLOWERS DUNCAN CHOSEN FOR NASA FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Elaine Flowers Duncan, an engineer at NASA's 
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and a native of 
Montgomery, Ala., has been selected for the NASA Administrator's 
Fellowship Program. 

As part of her fellowship beginning in August, she will teach classes 
for one year at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, emphasizing to 
students the importance of science, technology, engineering and 
mathematics careers. These fields of study are known as STEM -- 
fields crucial to NASA’s future exploration missions. 

The fellowship program, founded in 1997 and administered by the United 
Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation, is designed to 
enhance professional development of NASA employees. Also, for 
institutions serving minorities, the program helps increase their 
capability to participate in NASA's research and development 
programs. The program continues the Marshall Center’s long tradition 
of partnering with scientists, engineers, scholars and researchers at 
key institutions in Alabama and throughout the nation to promote 
education and expand STEM disciplines. 

Those selected to participate in the annual, highly competitive 
process are full-time, permanent NASA civil servants, who hold a 
master's degree in a STEM field and are recommended by their NASA 
center director, branch chief or directorate lead. 

Duncan, a lead flight systems engineer in the Marshall Center's 
Mission Operations Laboratory, will be involved in the development of 
a new materiel engineering graduate program in Alabama A&M's School 
of Engineering & Technology. The graduate program is a result of the 
growing need to provide opportunities for advanced work in the 
various engineering disciplines at the university and provide 
graduate education for employees who support and work for 
governmental entities and supporting contractors in North Alabama. 

Materiel engineering is interdisciplinary, involving the design, 
production, test and evaluation, distribution, operations and 
ultimate disposition of man-made equipment, apparatus and supplies. 
She will teach classes in project life cycle and product assurance 
and support NASA's Office of the Chief Engineer by providing 
initiatives to improve NASA's systems engineering capabilities. 

"This fellowship will provide an opportunity for me to support the 
growth of a historical minority college and improve my knowledge of 
systems engineering processes and techniques," Duncan said. "Through 
this experience, I hope to influence students to pursue degrees in a 
new and exciting technical profession." 

Duncan started her NASA career in 1980 as a flight systems and 
operation integration engineer at the Marshall Center. She has taken 
on many challenging positions throughout her career. Since 2006, she 
has supported the design, development, test and evaluation activities 
for the Orion Project Vehicle Operations Integration Office at NASA's 
Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Orion crew capsule, which will 
be launched on the Ares I rocket, is designed to carry crew and cargo 
to the International Space Station. The Ares I and Ares V rockets, 
currently under development at Marshall, are part of the 
Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and 
then to Mars and other destinations in the solar system, beginning 
with servicing the International Space Station following the 
retirement of the space shuttle in 2010. 

Duncan earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Alabama State 
University in Montgomery in 1976 and a master's degree in systems 
engineering from Howard University in Washington in 1980. Her honors 
include a NASA Special Service Award in 2007 for exceptional 
performance in exploration vehicle interface and operations 
integration activities. 

Duncan and her husband, Donald, have two children, Wesley and Jasmine, 
and live in Madison, Ala. 

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