In August, ASRC Federal was recognized for its support of World Space Week at the 36th Space Symposium. With this year’s theme of “Women in Space”, ASRC Federal is proud to highlight the stellar work of some of its own women leaders in the field of space exploration.
Ivy Deliz, NASA Ames Research Center
Ivy Deliz is a software developer at NASA Ames Research Center. NASA landed the Perseverance Rover on Mars in 2020, thanks to a devoted team of scientists and engineers that must now remotely manage its complex science experiments and collection of samples. The mission is critical to the continued robotic, and eventual human, exploration of the red planet. The team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley worked with engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California to tackle this complicated process of managing Perseverance’s performance by developing a state-of-the-art software management tool. The Component-based Campaign Planning, Implementation, and Tactical software tool, or COCPIT, enables scientists and engineers to map out all of the Rover’s surface activities – from drives to drills – while ensuring the Rover has enough time, battery power, data bandwidth, and storage memory to do its job. The tool can also be plugged into other complex IT systems on the Rover to achieve its slew of groundbreaking science missions.
“Every time I see a photo from Mars, I know it happened because a scientist or engineer decided the Perseverance Rover should do that using the COCPIT software that I helped program, which is extremely fulfilling to my space enthusiast heart.” – Ivy Deliz
Denise Harris, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
Denise Harris is the program director of the Research Facilities & Engineering Support Services (RF&ESS) contract at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. The RF&ESS program supports flight operations and low earth-orbiting missions. They provide range operations support including radar tracking, telemetry systems, long-range optics, RF Communications, real-time data processing, mission control room data monitoring, photography and videography support, post-flight processing, and long-term storage of flight data.
“I have had the good fortune to witness the success of the NASA Shuttle Program, emerging flight technologies, and advancements in commercial space missions. Managing the teams that contribute to mission success is a dream job.” –Denise Harris
Tammy Kimmell-Hammond, NASA Account Lead for ASRC Federal
Tammy Kimmell-Hammond is the Sr. Director, Business Development Strategy and Operations – NASA Account Lead for ASRC Federal. She is responsible for the development and implementation of growth opportunities between ASRC Federal and NASA, creating long-term value based upon our NASA customer relationship, positioning us to enter into new markets and creating strategic partnerships.
“The space industry offers challenges every day; no two days are the same. All I ever wanted was a seat at the table and a chance for my voice to be heard. The space community has so many challenges and unknowns — it offers everyone a chance to be heard and offer solutions.” – Tammy Kimmell-Hammond
Yvonne Massaquoi, NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Yvonne Massaquoi has supported ASRC Federal as a Program Director leading multiple multi-million-dollar federal projects for the past 18 years. Currently, she is the Program Director for the ASRC contracts with NASA’s Academy for Program/Project and Engineering Leadership Support Services at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In this role, she manages the NASA Academy’s learning program operations and creates needs projections for new learning programs within the systems engineering, engineering, and project management course portfolios. She also manages learning programs for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — promoting the ATF management objective, ensuring strict compliance of DOJ background investigation requirements, promoting physical security awareness and supporting basic law enforcement and industry operations training for newly hired special agents and industry operations investigators.
“When you become a leader, you lose the right to think about yourself. Your job is to use all the resources at your disposal to achieve wins for your team and your customer.” She adds, “Mae Jemison said It best – ‘Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.’” – Yvonne Massaquoi
Kerry Lawson, SpectRE Contract at NASA
Kerry Lawson is the Deputy Program Manager of the SpectRE Contract at NASA. The SpectRE contract primarily supports Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Kerry started with ASRC Federal and NASA as a software engineer; today she manages and supports programmatic, financial, IT and outreach tasks.
“NASA is a dynamic environment. It’s a great mix of tasks in various disciplines, and I have the pleasure of helping both our staff and our customers succeed. There are always new challenges, but I work with great people focused on finding solutions that support the agency’s goals.” -Kerry Lawson
About ASRC Federal
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Kristy Chandler at [email protected].
