When a number of team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, were honored this summer with Federal Women’s Program Outstanding Achievement Awards — recognizing exceptional service to Marshall and the U.S. space program — no one was more delighted to share the stage than NASA veterans Roslin Hicks and Lorna Jackson.
Both women were honored for achievement in a supervisory capacity. Hicks is group lead for the Planning and Facilities Utilization Office in Marshall’s Office of Center Operations. Jackson is Avionics Systems Integration Branch chief in the Engineering Directorate’s Space Systems Department.
Presented by Marshall’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the awards are given annually to honor Women’s Equality Day, Aug. 26. They reflect the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote. Congress created Women’s Equality Day in 1971.
But for Hicks and Jackson, the awards also sparked an unofficial reunion. Almost three decades ago, early in their respective careers, their paths briefly but memorably crossed.
A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Hicks’ NASA career started in 1987. She was a cooperative education student in Marshall’s Avionics Laboratory, tasked with testing batteries for the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble launched to orbit in 1990 — the same year Hicks became a full-time NASA employee — and continues to take extremely high-resolution images of the cosmos today.
“When I came in as a co-op, the first person I was assigned to work directly with was Lorna,” Hicks recalled. “She had so much personality, and she was a consummate professional. As a girl from North Carolina, I was so honored to work alongside her!”
Jackson, a native of Everett, Massachusetts, had begun her own NASA career a year earlier. She joined Marshall in 1986 as an electrical engineer, helping to design, develop and test electrical power systems for Hubble.
“Roslin was enthusiastic, a go-getter, always eager to learn,” Jackson said. “We took different paths, but that’s where we started. And look, now we’re both supervisors!”
Hicks credits Jackson for exemplifying the kind of NASA team member she knew she wanted to become — an energetic and knowledgeable leader, immersed in her work and inspiring to her team — while Jackson said her time spent tutoring Hicks influenced her to continue working with new generations of engineers and technicians.
“That’s one of NASA’s big challenges for the 21st century, bringing in new blood,” Jackson said. “As teams from the Apollo and space shuttle eras retire, we have to rebuild the ranks, nurturing highly skilled, career-minded workers to replace them.”
“The key to that, as a supervisor, is to create and sustain a healthy, respectful and safe work environment,” Hicks said. “Our team is our greatest asset. If you take care of the people, they’ll take care of the work.”
Outside work, both share a love of travel, community work and spending time with family. Listening to them reminisce about their early days at Marshall and the team spirit that defines their careers, however, those family bonds don’t seem limited to blood.
More about Roslin Hicks
Hicks, who has led the Planning and Facilities Utilization Office since 2008, oversees infrastructure management and updates as part of Marshall’s 20-year master plan. She also coordinates with the U.S. Army Garrison on Redstone; supervises Marshall lease agreements and other property management duties; and manages cultural and historical resources as directed by the National Historic Preservation Act, which oversees measures to safeguard sites of historic or archaeological significance across the country.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1989 from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro. Among her various leadership roles, she was special assistant to former Marshall Center Director Art Stephenson in 2001-2002.
Her husband Gregory is Talent Management Coordinator for Huntsville City Schools. They have two grown children.
More about Lorna Jackson
As branch chief since 2007 of the Avionics Systems Integration Branch, Jackson oversees the team responsible for integrating electrical systems on launch vehicles and space systems. Currently, they’re integrating avionics for NASA’s Space Launch System, the nation’s next heavy-lift launch vehicle, set to send humans to deep space exploration destinations, including Mars.
Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1982 from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Among her key duties over the years was electrical power system lead for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999 and still delivering breathtaking, scientifically rewarding images of the universe today.
Her husband Kurt is lead engineer for Space Launch System integrated avionics and software and special assistant to the Space Systems Department in Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. They have two grown children.
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