Dare to Explore

Eiman Jahangir is Section Director for General Cardiology and Cardio-Oncology at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Eiman has been a finalist for NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Program twice, was the medical officer for the first analog astronaut mission at the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars at Biosphere 2, **and became the 704th person to travel to space aboard **Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Jason Williamson is a civil engineering graduate of Purdue University. He has decades of civil and structural engineering experience and is the senior vice president of Dunaway. Jason recently attended adult Space Camp as part of Team Magellan, winning the Commander’s Cup, and is preparing to launch into space onboard Purdue 1 with Virgin Galactic in 2027.

Anna Boyd was a United States Navy helicopter pilot and Company Officer before serving in the US Navy Reserves for over a decade. She was commanding officer of SEAL Team 18 - Unmanned Aerial Systems and commanding officer of the Navy Reserve Naval History and Heritage Command. Today, she is the Senior Product Manager at Pinnacle Solutions in Huntsville, Alabama.

Ben Chandler has served as the President & COO for Easy Auto and Sunrise Acceptance since 2017. He attended Space Camp and Aviation Challenge programs 16 times, helped form the Space Camp Alumni Association, is a licensed pilot and airplane owner, and has served on the board of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation. Ben is Chair of the Cleveland, Tennessee, Regional Jetport Authority and Past Chairman of the Cleveland and Bradley County Community Foundation.

Mike Wicks began his career as a United States Army civilian engineer and private contractor for the Department of Defense. He co-founded and led Summit Research Corporation, found and led Integration Innovation Inc., or i3, and served as a vice president at Lockheed Martin when they acquired i3. In retirement, Mike and his wife Christine formed the nonprofit Wicks Family Foundation and is president of the Houston-based Diakonos Research developing of state-of-the-art cancer immunotherapies.

Robin Soprano and Nathan Carter are part of the future-looking leadership of Space Camp. Robin is vice president of Space Camp. She has been with the US Space and Rocket Center for nearly a decade, and previously was a director at Sci-Quest and an engineer with the United States Army at Redstone Arsenal. Nathan is the Director of Strategic Camp Development, and previously was the Director of Mission Support for Space Camp.

Astronaut Dr. Gretchen Green is a Brown, Yale, and Harvard educated radiologist practicing in North Carolina. She attended Space Camp four times, and served as a crew trainer. Dr. Green has served on the Space Camp Alumni Association Board and is currently on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation's Board of Directors. In May of 2025, Dr. Green added the title of Astronaut to her resume, flying aboard Blue Origin’s NS32 New Shepherd rocket.

Dr. Alexandra Kemp is an advanced human factors systems engineer at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, in Phoenix, Arizona. She is an adjunct professor of space human factors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a bioastronautics researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, and a classically trained professional opera singer.

Cheri Volkin is the accountant and scholarship coordinator for the US Space and Rocket Center Foundation. She previously served as an accountant for the US Embassy in Paris, France, and in guest relations for the Rocket City Trash Pandas before joining the Space and Rocket Center as an Aviation Challenge Docent.

Duke and Tina Tucker are married professionals working in the aviation industry. Tina is president of Pinnacle Solutions, and Duke is the vice president of business development at Akima. Together, these companies are developing state-of-the-art training and simulation products, as well as a variety of other services for the aviation industry.

Heather Roden is the Director of Space Camp Education at the US Space and Rocket Center. With a long career in informal education and museum experience, Heather oversees the Space Academy for Educators program, a Space Camp experience for teachers.

Jeff Haars is the Vice President and General Manager Space Exploration Division at Amentum, an advanced engineering and innovative technology company that has supported projects with the United States Military and NASA. Their current projects include parts of the Space Launch System and Human Landing System for the Artemis program.

Brenda Carr is the Executive Director of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation. Prior, she served as Vice President of Development at the US Space and Rocket Center, led the marketing department at Community Bank, and was the Director of Public Information in the Office of the Alabama Secretary of State for a decade.

PeggyLee Wright was a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot who flew with the 82nd Airborne Division. She is the founder and president of The Company You Keep, a leadership consulting company working with government, military, academia, non-profit, and industry organizations. She serves on multiple boards in the Huntsville, Alabama area, including the Huntsville Special Operations Forces Network.

Rey Almodóvar is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of INTUITIVE, an aerospace and defense company in Huntsville, Alabama. As a civilian engineer for the U.S. Army, Rey worked on multiple weapons systems, including the Patriot missile. Rey has received a number of prestigious awards, is a member of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission, the Von Braun Center Board of Control, and the Industry Advisory Board of his alma mater the University of Puerto Rico School of Engineering.

Lieutenant Commander Diallo Wallace is a Naval Aviator and Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer in the NAVAIR Reserve Program. Wallace has a bachelor’s in Electronics Engineering and a Masters degree in Astronautical Engineering. He has served as an analog astronaut, is a K-12 teacher, and an alumni of Space Camp.

Joseph Corso is a senior studying planetary science at Purdue University. He is a former Aviation Challenge crew trainer and is currently working as an intern at Polaris Dawn. He has participated in microgravity campaigns, civilian spacesuit research, and a variety of other exciting programs in his pursuit of becoming an astronaut.

Rebecca Torzone is the Division Vice President and General Manager, Airborne Multifunction Sensors at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. She has more than 20 years of experience within the aerospace and defense industry. Rebecca attended Space Camp three times as a teenager, and today serves on the US Space and Rocket Center Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Ashlee Stevenson attended Space Camp Aviation Challenge five times in her youth before returning as a Crew Trainer during college. A graduate of Georgia Tech, today she is the Digital Dealer Platforms Performance Lead at Mercedes-Benz USA, and serves on the Space Camp Alumni Association board of directors.

William Hudson holds a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and Corrections from The Citadel in South Carolina. He worked at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in various roles at Space Camp and Aviation Challenge before leaving for a position at Marshall Space Flight Center as a Payload Communications Manager for the International Space Station.

Scott Holcomb is an educator and innovator of instructional technologies. In his youth, he was featured in the film, Space Camp, as Hideo Takamini, and he served as an Aviation Challenge camp crew trainier. Today he is the Ed Tech Imagineer at Crosstown High in Memphis, Tennessee.

Christina Mitchell is a senior multimedia specialist for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She has a bachelors in mass communications and is currently pursuing her masters degree. She is a passionate storyteller striving to find new and innovative ways to engage audiences. She joins Dare to Explore to talk about her most recent endeavor to do just that – NASA's first tabletop roleplaying game supplement, The Lost Universe.

Lieutenant Colonel John Lassiter is a retired Air Force Aerospace Engineer who has worked on a variety of aircraft in his long career, including the F-15 fighter and the C-130 aircraft. Lassiter worked for nearly 30 years at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center in the Test Laboratory, where he supported numerous programs such as the Space Shuttle and Space Launch System, conducting structural dynamic and fluid dynamic testing. Today, he is a docent at the Space and Rocket Center, and joins Dare to Explore to talk about the A-12 Oxcart on display in the museum.

Ed Stewart graduated from West Virginia Weslayan College with a bachelor of arts in theatrical direction and design. Ed served the US Space and Rocket Center as the Director of Exhibits and Curation for almost nine years before becoming the full time Curator in May of 2023.

May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features Ron Paulus, a retired NASA project engineer who worked on Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle missions.

May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired Marshall Space Flight Center Lowell Zoller. Zoller served as chief of the projects office in the materials laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center during the creation of Skylab.

Beth Mund was a NASA public affairs officer for the Johnson Space Center and a communication officer for the International Space Station. She is a passionate advocate for the people and their stories of science and space exploration, now sharing their stories on stage, in workshops, and on her podcast, "Casual Space." She serves on the Space Camp Alumni Board and as a Space Drinks board member, and is an Analog Astronaut.

May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA Human Factors Engineer Jack Stokes. Efficient, safe, and comfortable interactions between the machinery and the human astronauts on board SkyLab was made possible through the research and designs of the Human Factors Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center.

May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is celebrating with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA physicist Richard Hoover. Hoover worked on the ATM Experiment S-056 grazing incidence X-ray telescope that captured more than 25,000 solar Xray images from Skylab. Skylab.

May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA engineer Kenny Mitchell. Mitchell worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center on the development of the Saturn V rocket and developed Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for Skylab.

Josh Whitfield is a United States Army veteran awarded the purple heart for his service in Iraq. Today, he is a political consultant and works as the District Director to California State Assemblymember Heath Flora. Josh attended Aviation Challenge 13 times in his youth and is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

Dr. Kirby Runyon is a Space Camp alumni and planetary geologist at the Planetary Science Institute. He has flown 16 parabolic flights, accumulating more than an hour of time spent in weightlessness. He owns a technical and space tourism consulting company, guiding clients through parabolic flights and teaching future astronauts about the geology they will see from space.

Dr. Gretchen Green is a Brown, Yale, and Harvard educated radiologist practicing in North Carolina. She attended Space Camp four times, and served as a crew trainer. Dr. Green served on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation's Board of Directors as the alumni representative, and is currently the active chairman of the Space Camp Alumni Association Board. She now serves as the active secretary to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation's Board of Directors as well.

Danny Jaques is a retired school teacher from Colorado. In his three decades of teaching, Danny helped with fundraising and chaperoned more than 500 students to Space Camp. He is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame, and owns Danny's Rocket Ranch, selling dehydrated space salsa and donating a portion of the profits to continue funding Space Camp Scholarships.

Harry Winer is a director, producer, and writer in the film and television industry. His television work includes Alias, Veronica Mars, Felicity, Hart to Hart, and many others. Harry is president of Smash Media and has written, directed, or produced over 25 films, including Space Camp in 1986. He is a professor at NYU and is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

Lt. Col. Burke Hare was a U.S. Air Force space and missile operator whose career has included overseeing the maintenance and operations of ICBMs and improvements made to the GPS satellite system. He is a Space Camp Hall of Fame member and is currently Program Manager Space Operations with the Space Development Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama.

Chris Vrenna is a musician, producer, engineer, programmer, and songwriter best known as the drummer for Nine Inch Nails. He’s played with Marilyn Manson, Guns and Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, and more, and he’s composed music for video games in the Quake, Doom, Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Call of Duty game series. Today, he teaches music technology and is on the board of directors for the US Space and Rocket Center Foundation.

Penny Pettigrew is a payload communications manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, communicating with astronauts conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station. She is a Space Camp alumni and a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

Robert Pearlman is a space historian and the founder and editor of the website collectSPACE. He was the director of communications and the marketing director for Space Adventures, the first space tourism company to send private individuals to the ISS. Robert is a Space Camp Hall of Fame member and a contributing writer to Space.com.

Katie Berryhill is former intelligence officer for the United States Air Force. Today, she is an astronomy professor at multiple colleges and the CEO of Berryhill Computer Forensics, Incorporated. She is a Space Camp alumni, a science education researcher, and a NASA Solar System Ambassador.

Dr. Andrea Hanson is a bioastronautics and microgravity science aerospace engineer. She is currently working at NASA Johnson Space Center on Crew Health and Performance for the Human Landing System (HLS). She is a Space Camp alumni, Space Camp Hall of Fame member, and serves on the Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board.

David Hitt is a contractor Communications Strategist with Marshall Space Flight Center's Office of Strategic Analysis and Communication. He began his career as a small town newspaper editor before joining NASA's Space Launch System as Communication Strategist. David is also the author of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story and Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years.

Marcia Lindstrom leads the Strategic Communications Team for NASA's Space Launch System, the rocket that will take humans to the Moon and eventually to Mars. In the past, she has served as manager for the External Relations Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and as Director of Operations for Space Camp.

Jim Allan is the accessibility coordinator for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He served as their webmaster and as an assistive technology specialist. He has been coordinating and bringing Texas students to SCIVIS (Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students) for more than twenty years, and serves as a technical expert for the program. Jim's expertise supported Space Camp's development of mission software usable by blind and visibly impaired students.

Peter Marquez is the Head of Space Policy at Amazon Web Services. He has consulted on television shows like "Space Force" as a space consultant, Director of Space Policy on the National Security Council, and served at Planetary Resources, Inc. as the Vice President for Global Engagement. His unique view of the space industry comes from a career of space policy and understanding the interconnected issues that come with advancing exploration.

Keri Bean is a systems engineer for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a deputy lead Rover Planner on the Curiosity rover. She is also a Helicopter Integration Engineer for the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter currently on Mars.

Margrit von Braun is an environmental engineer specializing in hazardous waste management and risk assessment. Her father was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center and led the development of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Margrit was one of the first women to join the University of Idaho College of Engineering faculty in 1980, and served as their Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. She founded an environmental engineering company with her husband that focused on remediation of hazardous waste sites, and in retirement, they started an international non-profit to assist communities in poor countries reduce environmental exposures and chemical disease.

Derek Hodgins is an aerospace engineer and member of the Strategy and Business Development team for Lockheed Martin's Lunar Exploration Campaigns. He has served as the Director of Business Development for Human Exploration at Northrop Grumman, as a Spaceflight and Technology Lead at NASA, and was a Flight Controller for Space Shuttle Mission Control.

Dan Oates is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame and a retired teacher from the West Virginia School for the Blind. For thirty years, Dan has been helping thousands of visually impaired and blind students and teachers experience Space Camp through a program called SCIVIS - Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students. In the past, he has served as Education Program Manager for Space Camp, and is currently the group coordinator for SCIVIS.

Mandy Vaughn is the founder and past president and CEO of VOX Space, a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit providing satellite launch services to the US government and allied nations. She is an Air Force veteran who served as Chair of the Workforce Development efforts for the National Security Space Association and is currently a member of NASA's National Space Council User's Advisory Group.