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I'm Teresa Vanhooser.

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I'm the Deputy Director here at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

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I had an uncle who was an engineer for TVA,
so when I was getting close to graduating

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from high school, and was trying to think
about what it was that I wanted to do, he

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suggested engineering.

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It sounded like a good way to take my love
for math and take it to the next level.

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That's why I made a decision to go to Tennessee
Tech because they had a great engineering

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department.

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I really thought I was going to stay in Tennessee,
maybe go back towards home when I graduated.

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But, my now husband - then boyfriend - co-oped
with NASA.

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When he said they were coming to do interviews,
I thought, it sounded like, well that would

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be a really cool job.

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After they came to interview, shortly after
that I got an offer.

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They said we'd love for you to come to work
for NASA.

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It didn't take me long to say yes.

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Of course, at that time, there wasn't a lot
of women at NASA and particularly in the organization

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and the branch that I was in.

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I was the only female with the exception of
the secretary that was there.

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I never ever felt like that I didn't belong
or they didn't want me there.

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It was always an encouraging...

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they always found ways to include me and to
make sure that they were teaching me along

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the way and bringing me up to speed.

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It was always, from day one, a great opportunity
to get to work with a lot of great engineers.

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Being willing to take a risk and being willing
to take on a new challenge is the first step

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in moving up.

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It's not always going to be easy.

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There's always going to be challenges throughout
any job that you take on and hopefully I'll

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be able to be one of those people who younger
women can look at and say 'If she can do it,

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I can do it.'

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That's one of my passions I have: around mentoring
and developing people.

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Being a supervisor allowed me to be able to
do that and to be able to see the fruitions