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I started my career here at the NASA 
Marshall Space Flight Center in January

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1973 as a cooperative education 
student from Alabama A&M University.

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As a matter of fact, we are now in 
Building 4207, Central Communications,

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this is the facility where I started 
my career. I spent the first fourteen

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years here.

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My first job here was a 
Telecommunications Specialist

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where we helped provide 
administrative communications

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for the agency, for the other NASA 
centers. That was my first job here

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at the NASA Marshall Space Flight 
Center.

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I initially started here in 
Telecommunications, but as my career

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progressed, I started doing other jobs. 
Initially I was a Program Analyst here

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in Telecommunications, then, 
eventually, I got a position in the

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Facilities Office as a Program Analyst 
Officer, then I came back here after

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Telecommunications and Computer Services 
Office merged to become the Information

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Systems Office. I headed up the 
Resources Management Branch. I did

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that job for several years. I eventually 
got a position as Director of the

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Business Management Office, which is 
now the Center Operations Directorate.

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After that job, the position for the 
Equal Opportunity Office came open. I

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was encouraged to apply for that 
position and was selected for it in the

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mid-1990s and I served in that position 
for about six and a half years.

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After that, I was selected for the 
Senior Executive Service Candidate

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Development Program, which was about 
an eighteen-month leadership development

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program. After graduating from that 
program, I was selected as the Director

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of Center Operations at Glenn Research 
Center. That’s where I got into the

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Senior Executive Service. I headed that 
organization for a couple of years and

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the position for the position of Deputy
Director for Center Ops came open here,

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back in Huntsville, so it was an 
opportunity for me to get back home

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here to Huntsville. I came back and 
ten months later, I was asked to go to

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NASA Headquarters where I headed up the 
Institutions and Management Directorate

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as associate administrator. I served in 
that capacity for seven months and then

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was selected as the associate deputy 
administrator for the agency. That

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position I held until retiring in 
December of 2010.

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I graduated from Livingston High School
 in 1971. I applied to Alabama A&M,

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which is where one of my sisters and 
one of my brothers attended, so it was

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just following the family tree. I got 
to Alabama A&M, really it was my first

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exposure to a lot of diversity. I grew 
up in an all African-American community

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in Sumter County. Except for my junior 
year in high school, I attended

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all-Black schools. My junior year, I 
attended basically an all-White high

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school; there were like eighteen Black 
students and several hundred White

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students. The very next year, I 
attended the same school and there

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were several hundred Black students 
and two White students. All the White

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students transferred to a private 
school for that year. It is called

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Sumter Academy; I assume it is still 
there. When I arrived at Alabama A&M,

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although it is an HBCU, we had, and I 
believe still have, a lot of students

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from different countries around the 
world. That was really my first

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interaction with a lot of people 
different form me, actually. It was

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my first foray into diversity.

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Like most students. I needed funding, 
so one of my friends from Livingston

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High School, we were in college 
together, he stopped by my dorm room

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and said he was going to go down and 
apply for the co-op program. When you

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apply, you dont know where you might 
get an assignment, so when the co-op

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coordinator interviewed me, he said 
based on your background, we have two

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possible positions for you. One of 
them, I believe, was in New Hampshire

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at a submarine facility and he said 
the other one is here at NASA Marshall

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Space Flight Center. Which one would 
you like to pursue. I said let me

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think, I will take the one here. Having 
no idea what the position would be,

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that is how I got selected. I checked 
in here; the personnel asked me to go

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get a badge from security. On my way 
down, I saw this building that we are

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sitting in now, Building 4207, and 
thought that looked like a neat

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facility, I would love to work there. 
I went back to personnel and got my

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assignment; it was in this building, 
Central Communications. It was a neat

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start and I really, really enjoyed 
working here because it was really

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on the forefront of advanced 
communications. I kind of marvel

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at the way things work, alternate 
telecommunications, routing, and

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that kind of stuff. It was a great 
experience and I never wanted to

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leave.

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A lot of mentors, but I did not 
really call it that because I

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did not realize that is what it was.
A lot of people, for whatever

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reason, took an interest in me, 
a gentleman, Jack Palmer, who worked

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in finance, and Jim Jennings, who, 
at that time, was working out at the

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Kennedy Space Center, Clyde Foster, 
was the EO Director here, my first

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Boss, Charlie Brand, who was a 
retired Navy chief. As I reflect

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back, it was a very good mentoring 
they were doing for me, but when

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you are nineteen years old, you dont 
really see it as that. And as my

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career progressed, a lot of people 
from around the agency, for

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whatever reason, took what I now 
know is a special interest in me.

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Dr. Julian Earls from the NASA 
Glenn Research Center, Dr. Woodrow

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Whitlow, who is also at Glenn 
Research Center, talked to me about

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various opportunities and things I 
needed to do to position myself as

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opportunities became available during 
my NASA career.

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Actually, I am very encouraged about
the state of STEM education,

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particularly from a NASA perspective. 
One thing about NASA, even when I

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was a NASA employee, NASA did not 
leave the development of the STEM

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pool up to the education system, 
so to speak. NASA was always involved

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in growing the STEM pool of young 
graduates, young people, because

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they knew eventually that is what 
it would take to sustain the agency.

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NASA, still today, has a lot of 
outreach even at the elementary stage

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throughout high school and college 
in encouraging STEM education. When

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I worked here, NASA invested a lot 
in minority education for STEM

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students. I remember a lot of students
who attended Morehouse and Spellman

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Colleges that earned dual degrees 
from Georgia Tech and Spellman and

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Morehouse. The agency actually 
did not hire a lot of the graduates,

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but they were in the engineering 
and science community that was

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available for NASA to consult with 
or bring in as time and funding

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permitted.

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Today I am still encouraged. We 
dont see a lot in the news cycle

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about a lot of students who are 
pursuing STEM education, but I am

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highly encouraged. Alabama A&M, 
where I attended, their new school

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of engineering is producing a lot 
of STEM students as well as

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doctoral students, particularly 
in physics. I think it is better

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than it used to be and it continues 
to improve.

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There were definitely challenges. 
The pool of minority employees

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were very small, but the thing 
you focused on in those days is

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just doing your job and doing it 
as best you could do it, as well

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as you could do it, to take that 
excuse off the table in terms of

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growth so when opportunities did 
become available, that excuse was

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eliminated. You focused on your 
job. At the same time, you talked

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to people in the community about 
letting them know when positions

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would become available and encourage 
people to apply. There were

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instances where I thought people 
might have been unfair due to

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non-merit based issues. Again, 
you did not focus on it. You

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continued to focus on your job 
and to do it as best you could

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and to help other people navigate 
the difficulties they may encounter

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here. But, for the most part, it is 
a highly technical community, most

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of the people who worked here were 
not from here, so that helped a lot.

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I knew of him, I knew some of the 
great work he was doing in helping

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EEO and, as importantly, diversity, 
because those two things are

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different. One, EEO helps you get 
into the workforce, diversity

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helps you manage a more diverse
workforce, and Clyde was certainly

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on the forefront of that. 
As I grew here in the first five,

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ten years, I got to know him a lot 
better and we would have conversations.

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Again, it was pure mentoring and 
sharing some of the things he had

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experienced here in the early 1960s 
when he started working here. But

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yes, he was a giant in the NASA 
community.

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James, he was and is and always will 
be a giant in the NASA community,

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really forward thinking both 
strategically and tactical thinker.

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He helped hundreds of people of all 
stripes, so to speak. He shared his

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experience; he talked about things 
you need to do and are difficult.

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He is also one that would encourage 
you, dont hesitate to take

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different jobs whether here or 
at any other NASA center, knowing

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that it may be difficult family-wise, 
but figuring out a way to do it to

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help build your resume. He is a 
giant. If there was a NASA hall of

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fame, he would be in it.

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First, you have to work at it. I can 
recall talking to managers about,

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well, they would tell me the 
difficulty they were having in

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finding minority candidates for 
positions and I would ask them where

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were they going to recruit. Auburn, 
Mississippi State. Well, you get

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great engineering students, but you 
have to look beyond that. I think

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NASA does that now and it does that 
quite well to go out and look in

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different places and find excellent 
students in the STEM world. NASA

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does a good job to send engineers 
out to talk to colleges and

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universities, even programs where 
NASA employees actually go out and

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teach, and sending employees that 
look like the students they are

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trying to recruit. Those things 
are tremendously helpful. I am also

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encouraged in that the NASA education 
group at NASA Headquarters keeps

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the focus on where managers need to 
go to recruit, keep the focus on developing STEM

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candidates, identifying where they 
might be and taking managers there

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to talk to students. NASA is very 
involved and I am highly encouraged

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that they will continue to be the 
leader among government agencies in

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STEM education.

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There is one thing in hiring diverse 
employees, there is another in managing

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diverse employees. The leadership 
theory used to be the same, which

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does not work because people are 
different. When you have a diverse

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pool of employees, you need to 
understand what motivates them based

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on their own background and where 
they come from so treating everybody

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the same just does not work. I would 
highly encourage all leaders to get

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to know their employees and find out 
what motivates them. It takes a lot