Engineer Spotlight

Donya Douglas-Bradshaw

Background:

Ms. Douglas-Bradshaw first attended Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she majored in mechanical engineering. "I did not see people who looked like me in science or engineering," she said. She ultimately earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1994.

Life at Goddard:

Ms. Douglas-Bradshaw earned a one-year internship at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Afterward, she was offered a co-op position at Goddard and also served as the project manager for the ATLAS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite. Ms. Douglas-Bradshaw is currently the project manager of the Lucy mission, which will be first mission to study the Trojan asteroids. She is responsible for ensuring accuracy of the technical details, budget, and schedule for the mission. Over her 30 years of work at Goddard, Douglas-Bradshaw has grown to place a high value on mentorship. She advocates for kids and has served on county and state groups for underrepresented youths. She advises students to advocate for themselves, but acknowledged, "In life and along your career path, you need people with authority to guide you."

Anthony Sanders

Background:

Mr. Sanders holds a B.S. in Electrical and Nuclear Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park and a Certificate in Public Leadership from the Brookings Institute, Washington, DC. 

Life at Goddard:

Mr. Sanders started his career at NASA Goddard in 1986 as a high school intern.  He served as an electronics technician while a co-op student supporting several branches in Robotics, Power Systems, and Flight Data Processing Devices.  Anthony spent much of his career working as a design and test engineer specializing in parts and radiation qualification of microelectronics in support of spaceflight missions such as Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument on Mars Curiosity Rover, and Magnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS). Anthony entered the Senior Executive Service on February 28, 2021 as Chief of the Electrical Engineering Division, providing leadership for end-to-end electrical engineering capabilities to enable NASA science observations from space.

Sanetra Bailey

Background:

Mrs. Bailey graduated from North Carolina A&T University with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Life at Goddard:

Mrs. Bailey has worked at NASA Goddard for 10 years. Her role has expanded over time, shifting from designing digital circuits for robotic satellites to large observatories – including NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Among its many cosmic pursuits, this mission will explore the nature of dark energy and dark matter and hunt for planets beyond our solar system.

Mrs. Bailey has worked at NASA Goddard for 10 years. Her role has expanded over time, shifting from designing digital circuits for robotic satellites to large observatories – including NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Among its many cosmic pursuits, this mission will explore the nature of dark energy and dark matter and hunt for planets beyond our solar system.

Max Pinchinat

Background:

Mr. Pinchinat graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the City College of New York in 2000. He received his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2004.

Life at Goddard:

Mr. Pinchinat started his started career at Goddard as a co-op in 1997, developing Convolutional Encoders and Viterbi Decoders in Code 453 (Mission Management Test Division). He then joined the Goddard community as a full-time employee, in 2000. While at Goddard, he’s worked on Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE)/Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), Thermal Infrared System (TIRS), and numerous Independent Research & Development (IRAD) efforts. His roles ranged from Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) programmer, to board lead, to Product Development Lead (PDL). He currently holds the role of a Code 564 (The Instrument Electronics Development Branch) Associate Branch Head (ABH) and a PDL on PACE/OCI.

Barry Green

Background:

Mr. Green earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University. He worked as Facilities Planner of technical infrastructure at the INL before becoming a Distribution Engineer for the Philadelphia Electric Company. Eventually he relocated to Maryland and became an Electrical Design Engineer at Allied Signal/Bendix where he designed utility and facility improvement projects at NASA GSFC.

Life at Goddard:

Mr. Green would then become a civil servant as NASA GSFC’s Energy Manager where he managed an $18M annual utility budget analyzing existing systems and developing solutions to improve energy and water efficiency toward improving GSFC’s sustainability footprint. One of Mr. Green’s greatest accomplishments is leading a team on the first government administered landfill gas project that yielded $21M in savings from 2003 to 2013.

Mr. Green currently serves as the Assistant Director for Engineering Operations at NASA Goddard. As the Chair of the Technical Facilities Committee, he oversees Goddard’s clean rooms, chemical, mechanical, electrical & communication laboratories, integration and test facilities, and technical development laboratories. He works with engineers and scientists from different disciplines to analyze existing systems to develop solutions for improving efficiency and preparing for the next space flight project.

Aprille Ericsson

Background:

Dr. Aprille Ericsson attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical/astronautical engineering. She went on to earn her master’s and doctoral degrees at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where her research focused on developing practical design procedures for future orbiting space structures like the International Space Station.

Life at Goddard:

Dr. Ericsson first joined GSFC as an Attitude Control Systems analyst, where she developed practical control methods and analyzed structural dynamics for several spacecraft missions and concepts. During her career, Dr. Ericsson has served as Instrument Project Manager (PM) and led spaceflight mission teams and proposal developments for various instruments including the Near-Infrared Spectrograph on the James Webb Space Telescope; the Project Engineer for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; and Instrument Proposal Manager for a Mars mission, SCIM. She has served as the Acting IPM and Deputy IPM for ICESat-2's sole instrument the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a $500M LIDAR instrument which continues to provide important observations of ice-sheet elevation change, sea-ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height begun by ICESat (-I), on which Dr. Ericsson was PE in 2003.

Carlton Peters

Background:

In 1999, Mr. Peters graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration on Heat Transfer.

Life at Goddard:

Mr. Peters started his career in heat transfer in the Thermal Engineering Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He led the thermal design and thermal subsystem for a number of instrument and spacecraft developments, which includes the Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument successfully flown on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) thermal system, the Thermal System Lead for the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST) mission and most recently served as the Lucy Mission Thermal System Lead (2018) into Phase B of mission development. Mr. Peters has worked all phases of missions from Phase A to E. He also serves on the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) industry-wide Passive Thermal Technical Discipline Team that is chartered with assessing thermal technologies, risks and trends across the discipline. In 2011, Mr. Peters was selected as an Associate Branch Head in Code 545 and presently serves as their Branch Head since 2016. Mr. Peters is currently the Chair of the GSFC African American Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the ETD Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Christyl Johnson

Background:

Dr. Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Lincoln University a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from George Washington University. She served on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where she was responsible for ensuring the establishment of clear national goals for Federal science and technology investments in a broad array of areas across the executive branch.

Life at Goddard:

Dr. Johnson first began her career at Langley Research Center in Hampton Va. designing and building laser systems for advanced active remote sensors. She later became a program manger and lead engineer of the Diode-Pumped Cr:LiSAF Technology Development Program Lidar for remote sensing of water vapor earning international recognition for its success. She came to Goddard in 2010 as a deputy center director for science and technology.

Dr. Johnson is currently the deputy director for technology and research investments at Goddard Space Flight Center. She manages the center’s research and development portfolio and is responsible for formulating the center’s future science mission and technology goals and objectives and leads an integrated program of investments aligned to meet those goals.

Milton Davis, III

Background:

Milton Davis graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelors in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering in 2004. He obtained his Masters in Project Management from Johns Hopkins University in 2011. Mr. Davis started as an intern at NASA in 2000 in the Guidance Navigation and Control hardware branch. He was able to obtain a patent for is work on a demise-able moment exchange system as an intern. He later served as a product development lead, avionics deputy lead, associate branch chief, and mechanical/thermal chief engineer for this branch. Mr. Davis served as the OSAM-1 Space Infrastructure DExterous Robot (SPIDER) Payload systems Lead in 2020.

Life at Goddard:

Milton Davis is the OSAM-1 Space Vehicle Manager and the NSBE GSC president. He also serves as the executive director for Future Innovative Rising Engineers and Entrepreneurs (FIRE). He serves on a team at NASA GSFC helping minority students become STEM professional called the STEM Pipeline for Equity Inclusion and Diversity (SPEID)

Shareable Lesson:

Mr. Davis self-enrolled at a community college after high school because he was discouraged that he could not afford school. While attending community college, Mr. Davis obtained an internship at NASA that allowed him to remain in school and support his new family. Mr. Davis worked 20-30 hours each semester at restaurants while attending Purdue University before he graduated. So, he knows that perseverance pays.

Cynthia Simmons

Background:

Ms. Simmons holds a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Biological Sciences and Engineering and M.E. from the University of Maryland College Park in Aerospace Engineering; and is currently pursuing an Applied Mathematics PhD at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Life at Goddard:

Ms. Simmons began her career as a U.S. Air Force officer.  After the Air Force, she served as an engineer for DoD, international and DARPA. She came to Goddard in 2000 as a contractor and provided 10 years of engineering support to the GOES L/M/O/P, ST-5, LRO, GPM, Messenger, and SAM (Mars Curiosity) missions. She then converted to civil service as an Instrument Project Manager for Astro-H/SXS and ICESat-2/ATLAS and later, Code 550 Associate Division Chief. In 2016, she entered the Senior Executive Services to serve as Code 550 Division Chief, Engineering and Technology Directorate Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management (PBM), Flight Project Directorate (FPD) Deputy Director for PBM, and then FPD Deputy Director before becoming the FPD Director Of on 30 January 2022. In her time at Goddard, she has also served as Chair and Subject Matter Expert on NASA Standing Review Boards, as well as Goddard Standing Review Teams for several NASA missions. “Paying it forward” is her commitment to serving as mentor while encouraging others to believe.

– Don’t let your starting point be your endpoint. Reaching the stars is determined by what you do along the way; not where you started. Find your strengths. Rely upon them to build courage and confidence to grow. Nourish your soul. Have GRIT (God Revealing Individual Tenacity) and rise to your true potential.