National Aeronautics and Space Administration • 

WOMEN OF COLO 

PIONEERSG INNOVATORS 

www.nasa.gov
 

1.	 Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman—Born to Texan sharecroppers in 1892 as 

the 10th of 13 children, Ms. Coleman became the first woman of AfricanAmerican descent to become a pilot and to hold an international pilot license. 

After hearing stories from pilots returning from World War I, Ms. Coleman 

determined to learn to fly. She finally went to France for lessons because no 

one in the United States was willing to teach her. 

2.	 Sunita L. Williams (Captain, U.S. Navy)—As an astronaut, Ms. Williams has 

been a flight engineer and an International Space Station Commander. She 

holds the female records for the longest cumulative spacewalk time (50 hours 

40 minutes), longest single spaceflight (195 days), and second longest time in 

space (322 days). As a pilot and test pilot for the U.S. Navy, she logged more 

than 3000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft. 

3.	 Anita D. Liang—Ms. Liang serves as NASA Glenn Research Center’s Director of 

Safety and Mission Assurance. Her Government career has spanned 18 years, 

with previous positions at Glenn including Deputy Director of the Facilities 

and Test Directorate, Associate Director for Aeronautics, and Chief of the 

Aeropropulsion Project Office. 

4.	 Yvonne D. Cagle, M.D. (Colonel, U.S. Air Force, retired)—Dr. Cagle, an astronaut 

and flight surgeon, is qualified as a mission specialist. She is assigned to 

NASA Johnson Space Center’s Space and Life Sciences Directorate and is 

currently on detail as a visiting university professor. Her groundbreaking work 

is preserving historic space data as well as NASA’s lead in global mapping, 

sustainable energies, green initiatives, and disaster preparedness. 

5.	 Felicia Jones, Ph.D.—Dr. Jones serves as the Director of Engineering at the 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She leads one of the largest engineering 

organizations at NASA responsible for the technical implementation of NASA 

and other Government agencies spaceflight programs. She provides executive 

leadership to a multidisciplined, technical organization charged with 

advancing the Nation’s science, human exploration, and space technology 

programs through all phases of the system life cycle in support of NASA’s 

Earth Science, space science, and exploration missions. 

6.	 Ellen Ochoa, Ph.D.—Dr. Ochoa, a former astronaut, has been Director of the 

NASA Johnson Space Center since 2012. She is Johnson’s first Hispanic 

director and its second female director. In 1993, she became the first Hispanic 

woman to go to space. She has flown in space four times, logging 978 hours 

in orbit. Prior to her astronaut career, she was a research engineer and coinventor on three patents for optical systems. 

7.	 Hortense Blackwell Diggs—Ms. Diggs is the Deputy Director of Kennedy 

Space Center’s Office of Communication and Public Engagement. Ms. Diggs 

joined NASA in 2000 as a flight assurance manager in the Expendable Launch 

Vehicles Safety and Flight Assurance Office where she was responsible for 

developing and implementing flight assurance activities. She was the Mission 

LG–2016–12–026–GRC

Assurance Manager for launches of both Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and 

Opportunity) and the Deep Impact missions. 

8.	 Christyl C. Johnson, Ph.D.—Dr. Johnson is the Deputy Director for Technology 

and Research Investments at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 

She manages the scope of the Center’s research and development and is 

responsible for formulating the Center’s technology goals. Previously, she 

served at the White House as the Executive Director of the National Science 

and Technology Council. 

9.	 Marla E. Pérez-Davis, Ph.D.—Dr. Pérez-Davis serves as the deputy director 

of the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. In this capacity she 

shares with the center director responsibility for planning, organizing, and 

managing the Agency-level programs and projects assigned to the Center. 

Immediately prior to her current assignment, Dr. Pérez-Davis served as deputy 

director of the Research and Engineering Directorate, a post she held since 

2014. In this position, Dr. Pérez-Davis was responsible for leading, planning, 

coordinating, and managing all phases of Glenn’s research and engineering 

activities to accomplish NASA missions. 

10. Jeanette J. Epps, Ph.D.—A NASA astronaut since 2009, Dr. Epps served on 

a 9-day NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) expedition 

in 2014. As she and her team lived 62 feet underwater off the coast of Key 

Largo, Florida, they investigated tools, techniques, and technologies for future 

space missions. Previously, she was a technical intelligence officer for the 

Central Intelligence Agency. She is set to become the first African-American 

crew member aboard the ISS on Expedition 56 in 2018. 

11. Joan E. Higginbotham—Before she retired as an astronaut in 2007, Ms. 

Higginbotham logged over 308 hours on Space Shuttle Discovery, where her 

primary task was to operate the Space Station Remote Manipulator System 

as the International Space Station was constructed. Previously, she was the 

lead for experiments on Space Shuttle Columbia and actively participated in 

53 shuttle launches. 

12. Mae C. Jemison, M.D.—Dr. Jemison, the first African-American woman to 

travel in space, logged over 190 hours on Space Shuttle Endeavour as she 

conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences, and bone cell 

research. Prior to being an astronaut, she was an Area Peace Corps Medical 

Officer and a medical doctor. Today, she owns and runs a company that 

researches and develops science technology for daily life. 

13. Robyn 	N. Gordon—Ms. Gordon has been the Director of Center 

Operations at the NASA Glenn Research Center since 2009 and was 

the first African-American woman named into the Senior Executive 

Service at NASA Glenn. Previous positions she has held include 

Deputy Director of Glenn’s Center Operations Directorate and Chief of the 

Diversity Management Office. 

14. Digna Carballosa—Ms. Carballosa is the director of Human Resources (HR) at 

NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She leads the organization 

that oversees training and development, recognition, workforce strategy 

and planning, Federal labor relations, employee services, and operations. 

With more than two decades of proven leadership experience and subject 

matter expertise, Carballosa develops innovative human capital management 

strategies and implements customer-focused and compliant HR operations. 

Highlights include sustained standards of excellence, reputable and diverse 

experience developing and implementing Government-wide and Centerspecific HR policy, and alignment of human capital strategy to organizational 

goals. She consistently delivers results by aligning human capital strategy 

with mission priorities and helping organizations and employees improve 

performance. 

15. Stephanie D. Wilson—Ms. Wilson logged more than 42 days in space during 

three space shuttle missions for which she was the robotic arm operator for 

inspecting the shuttle, supporting spacewalks, and maneuvering “Leonardo,” 

the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Before flying as an astronaut, Ms. Wilson 

worked in the Mission Control Center communicating with several space 

shuttle and space station crews. 

16. Annie Easley—Ms. Easley began her career as a “human computer,” at the 

Glenn Research Center doing computations for researchers. This involved 

analyzing problems and doing calculations by hand. Her earliest work involved 

running simulations for the newly planned Plum Brook Reactor Facility. Using 

languages like the Formula Translating System (Fortran) and the Simple 

Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to support a number of NASA’s programs, she 

developed and implemented code used in researching energy-conversion 

systems, analyzing alternative power technology—including the battery 

technology that was used for early hybrid vehicles, as well as for the Centaur 

upper-stage rocket. Later in her career, she took on the additional role of equal 

employment opportunity (EEO) counselor. In this role she helped supervisors 

address issues of gender, race, and age in discrimination complaints at the 

lowest level and in the most cooperative way possible. 

17. Dovie E. Lacy—Ms. Lacy is the chief of the Office of Communications 

and External Relations where she oversees a staff of civil servants and 

contractors who develop and implement programs, outreach activities, and 

communication strategies. Specifically, she ensures that all engagement 

activities foster interactions with learners of all ages to spark an interest in 

STEM using NASA materials and resources. Ms. Lacy develops partnerships to 

share NASA Glenn’s expertise and achievements with diverse audiences. She 

also leads a staff that communicates Glenn’s achievements via electronic, 

print, and Web-based media. 

18. Christine Mann Darden, D.Sc.—Dr. Darden served as NASA Langley Research 

Center’s Director of the Office of Strategic Communications and Education 

before retiring in 2007. An internationally known researcher in aerodynamics 

for nearly 30 years, she authored over 57 technical publications about sonic 

booms, supersonic wing design, and other topics. 

19. Mary Jackson—Ms. Jackson began her career as a research mathematician, 

or "computer," at the Langley Research Center in her hometown of Hampton, 

Virginia. In 1953 she moved to the Compressibility Research Division. After 

5 years at NASA and after taking several additional courses, she joined a 

special training program and was promoted to aerospace engineer. She then 

worked to analyze data from wind tunnel experiments and real-world aircraft 

flight experiments at the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch of the SubsonicTransonic Aerodynamics Division at Langley. Her goal was to understand air 

flow, including thrust and drag forces. Many years later, she was assigned to 

work with the flight engineers at NASA. Ms. Jackson worked to help women 

and other minorities to advance their careers, including advising them how 

to study so that they could change their titles from "mathematician" to 

"engineer" to increase their chances of promotion, which she did herself. 

20. Dorothy Vaughan—In 1949, Ms. Vaughan became the acting head of the West 

Area Computers, a work group composed entirely of African-American female 

mathematicians. It would take 2 more years until she would be officially 

appointed the title of section head in January 1951. Mathematician Katherine 

Johnson was assigned to Ms. Vaughan's group before being transferred to 

Langley's Flight Research Division. Ms. Vaughan continued at Langley after 

NACA became NASA, specializing for the rest of her career in electronic 

computing and FORTRAN programming. She worked in the Langley Research 

Center's Analysis and Computation Division and also participated in Scout 

Project (Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system) tests at Wallops Flight 

Facility. 

21. Katherine Johnson—Ms. Johnson helped track NASA’s orbital missions 

from 1953 to 1986. She calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard as 

he became the first American to go into space in 1959, verified the orbital 

mathematics for John Glenn as he became the first American to orbit the 

Earth in 1962, and calculated the flight trajectory for Apollo 11 in 1969, when 

the first human set foot on the Moon. President Barack Obama presented her 

with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. 

PS–02131–2–0217