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ACCESS Deputy Project Manager Risha George

Risha George
"Can you imagine someone landing on the Moon that looks like you?” — Risha George, Advanced Communications Capabilities for Exploration and Science Systems (ACCESS), Deputy Project Manager, Goddard Space Flight Center

“I just saw the latest come out from administrator… ‘we are putting the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.’ Which is a change. I think that’s a really exciting change. I want to be a part of that. When I first went to work at Johnson Space Center, no one looked like me, you know? No one was a non-white person. There was maybe a handful of folks. I couldn’t even understand what people were saying, to be honest. Even though I grew up in Houston, I grew up in a very diverse area, and everyone at Johnson had these thick Texan accents and spoke in acronyms. I didn’t know what anyone was saying, it was really like learning a foreign language.

“You still have a lot of male domination in technology and STEM-related fields. When I first came to the project in 2015, it was just me and one other woman who were civil servants on the project. But as the years have gone by, I can look around the table and see how things have evolved. There are more women and more people of color.

“By stating and making a commitment of ‘a woman and a person of color’ — I was extremely excited to see that. They’re being very purposeful about this next phase of going back to the Moon, and not just going with the old way of doing business. Being more inclusive is also going to be very inspirational, not only for me, but for the next generation that’s coming up, too. Can you imagine someone landing on the Moon that looks like you?”

— Risha George, Advanced Communications Capabilities for Exploration and Science Systems (ACCESS), Deputy Project Manager, Goddard Space Flight Center

Image Credit: NASA / Rebecca Roth
Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos

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