“I stress this a lot to my Artemis team here: mental health is very important to me. I say that because my daughter was about two years old when I became a single mother. I was in a very, very bad place. The only thing that I did was take care of her. I had no desire to do anything, including work. So I moved back home with my mom. And after about a year, my mom said, okay, we gotta get moving and snap out of this.
“Easier said than done, but my daughter was getting a little bit older and I wanted to be a good example for her. I actually applied to a temp agency in town and they placed me at the [Kennedy Space Visitor Complex] as a secretary for the CEO. He knew I had my degree, and he asked, ‘What do you want to do? Tiffany, what do you want to do? Because you’re not going to be a secretary.’
“…And so I took a chance and went ahead and applied. And I was lucky enough to get a position out here at the press site.
“I was working on the logistical side of things prior to becoming a public affairs officer, so I was arranging the VIP tour visits and things of that nature. I was in and out of the facilities and working with the operational teams a lot, arranging visits with media.
“After my first year of doing that, I was selected as one of the representatives to travel to LA to well, ultimately, win the Emmy Award, when we were nominated for Best Interactive broadcast for [the Demo-1 mission]. And it was very close to that time that I decided that I wanted to throw my hat in the ring to try to do the public affairs role.
“…And that brought me here to be able to lead the Artemis team.
“[My daughter] will be 19 in just a few weeks. She’s in college, but doesn’t exactly know what she wants to do. And I say, that’s okay! I didn’t know what I wanted to do until I was well into my thirties. My big takeaway is: it’s okay to take chances. Sometimes we step in our own way and we need to accept help. Something very beautiful has spawned out of a dark place that I was in when I first started my career here.”
— Tiffany Fairley, Public Affairs Officer, Artemis Team Lead, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Image Credit: NASA / Ben Smegelsky
Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos