Nasa Women's History Month Profile - Robyn gordon

The Center Operations Directorate is a mission support organization which provides security, procurement, logistical, and technical information, and external relation support to the NASA Glenn Research Center. Well, I started at NASA about ten years ago as a Human Resources Director and moved from there to the Director of Diversity for the NASA Glenn Research Center, and also did a stint in CSCDP which is a senior executive career development program for NASA where I served as deputy for the NASA Safety Center, an operations analyst at headquarters, and as the executive officer for the then Deputy Administrator, Shana Dale. I have an MBA in operations management and an undergraduate degree in human resources and although I didn’t plan this when I was in college, these two educational experiences have come together nicely along with my background to help me serve as the center operations director.   I think NASA has been a place that has given me a wealth of opportunities.  Um, I came here as a Human Resources Director, and I learned a lot about federal employment because I had never worked for the federal government before.  Um, and then moving into the senior executive candidate development program, it’s the first time that someone had truly invested an enormous amount in me for me to figure out what it is that I wanted to do.  And so I think that opportunity in and of itself is just—spoke volumes about, you know, what is available to you here at NASA. A number of people have inspired me, and I like to believe that you know I get inspiration daily but most often I have to think of my grandmother and my mother who are just fabulous role models.  But here at NASA, I’ve met just some phenomenal women.  I had the opportunity to meet Katherine Johnson, who is referred to by many people as a human computer.  And uh, people like Christine Darden and Crystal Johnson—people who’ve gone into the senior executive service before me and have really paved the way.  So, you know, inspiration is all around me. I hope that I am inspiring the next generation of women managers.  Um, but also inspiring students to be lifelong learners and realize that anything is possible with education and hard work.