Sally Ride
ASTRONAUT / PHYSICIST (1951 - 2012)
Sally Ride was the first American Woman to
fly in space. She applied for NASA in 1977
when she was still a student and was one of
six woman picked. In 1983, she flew in space
for the first time as an astronaut on a space
shuttle mission. After her time at NASA, Ride
started teaching at the University of California
and looking for ways to help women who were
interested in studying science and
mathematics. She came up with the idea for
NASA's EarthKAM project, which allowed
school students to take photos of Earth using
a camera on the International Space Station.
In 2003, Sally Ride was added to the
Astronaut Hall of Fame. She was also the
earliest space traveler to be recognised as a
member of the LGBT community.
Sylvia Acevedo
ENGINEER & BUSINESSWOMAN (1956 present)
Sylvia Acevedo has been an entrepreneur,
rocket-scientist and book author, among
other professions. From 2017-2020 she was
the CEO of the USA Girl Scouts and she was
also Chair of President Obama's White
House initiative for Educational Excellence
for Hispanics in early childhood leadership.
She has been a national speaker on
education, STEM, cybersecurity,
demographic trends and leadership. Acevedo
started her career at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and has held executive roles at
several large tech companies, including
Apple and Dell. In 2018, she was inlcuded in
a Forbes list of "America's Top 50 Women in
Tech".
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