Description
Learn how you can empower yourself to pursue a career in STEM. During this session, Tawnya Plummer Laughinhouse will share how she navigated her career journey to become a leader in the field of space tech innovation. Participants will receive a link via email the morning of the scheduled event to join the discussion. Registration is open until 6 PM EST/3 PM PST the day of the session.
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Time: 7-7:30 PM EST/4-4:30 PM PST
About Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse
Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse is Manager of the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) Program Office at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, AL. TDM is the largest program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, with an annual budget approaching $500M. On Feb 18, 2021, two of the technology projects her program funds arrived at Mars as part of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission: Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN), part of the Rover’s landing system which enabled the most precise rover landing ever on Mars; and the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument, which on April 21, 2021, demonstrated the first ever production of oxygen on another planet—a first critical step that will one day support human exploration on Mars. Prior to joining the TDM Program in 2017, Tawnya spent over 12 years as a Materials Engineer with the NASA MSFC Materials and Processes Laboratory. Before joining NASA in 2004, she worked as a process chemist and product engineer in the manufacturing industry. A recipient of the NASA Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) scholarship, Tawnya earned a B.S. Degree in Chemistry with honors from Spelman College, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Tawnya also holds a Master of Science in Management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Tawnya is a graduate of various early-career and mid-level leadership development programs at NASA and the US Army Aviation and Missile Command.