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Martinez Recognized by Great Minds in STEM
11.09.10
Debbie Martinez' red carpet moment came in early October when she was flown to Florida to receive the 2010 Hispanic Engineer Professional Achievement Award.
"I was very blown away by the whole experience," said Martinez, an established engineer, deputy project manager, Hispanic outreach coordinator and motivator.
The award recognizes Martinez's professional achievements and her involvement in the Hispanic community, potential as a role model, leadership ability and level of responsibilities. Her colleague for the past 20 years, Miguel Alvarez, assistant head of the Simulation Development and Analysis Branch, nominated her for the award.
Debbie Martinez, deputy project manager for Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies (AEST) and System-Wide Safety and Assurance Technologies (SSAT) projects, received the 2010 Hispanic Engineer Professional Achievement Award. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith
Established in 1989, the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC), recently renamed Great Minds in Stem, is a non-profit organization, which promotes careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The annual conference recognizes contributions of Hispanic American STEM professionals in a variety of categories.
Martinez started her career at NASA Langley 20 years ago, first as an electronics engineer working with flight simulators, then as a system engineer, then flight operations engineer, working her way up to deputy project manager. Recently Martinez transitioned from deputy project manager for the Orion Flight Test Article (FTA) Project Office to the deputy project manager for Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies (AEST) and System-Wide Safety and Assurance Technologies (SSAT) projects within the Aviation Safety Program managed under the Aeronautical Research Directorate (ARD).
As impressive, if not more than her professional career, is her dedication to outreach in the Hispanic community, both within NASA and outside. She has a knack for balancing work, community service and family life.
Her involvements are almost too many to list. Among the most notable are co-founder of the Society of Hispanic Engineers - Southeast Virginia Professional Chapter, and chair of the NASA LaRC Hispanic Advisory Group since 1996. She speaks at schools, churches and to the military and has established and manages (via the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs) four minority-related websites: Latina Women of NASA (WON), WON LaRC, Hispanic Astronauts and Hispanics@NASA LaRC.
She has been on the cover of engineering magazines and honored with many awards and remains humble and grateful.
"In our Latin culture you don’t toot your own horn. It's engrained in us to do hard work and that should get you recognized," she said.
The HENAAC award is something she never dreamed of getting.
"It acknowledges me as an engineer and a manager in a leading-edge scientific application field and for the outreach I do," Martinez said. "To be recognized by your peers is very satisfying, and also to make the center aware that one of their own received such a prestigious Hispanic professional award, which shows NASA encourages diversity in its workforce, is a good thing."
It's hard to imagine where Martinez can go from here, but she is looking forward to her new position in ARD.
"I'm very grateful to the FPD and the FTA project team and what we have accomplished together," Martinez said. "They allowed me to grow as a deputy project manager, and I hope to give back to the agency even more."
Visit HENAAC for more details at http://www.greatmindsinstem.org/henaac/awards/awardwinners.php
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NASA Langley Research Center
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