ABOUT

Unlike many professionals in the field, aerospace, although always an underlying passion, was not a career choice that I initially planned to pursue. In fact, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do after high school. I was both blessed and cursed with a wide array of interests and talents, but that certainly doesn't make it easier when you're told to choose one school and one major at age 18.

 

As I always like to point out, we are told to pick our future at a time we still have to ask to go to the bathroom. But I digress..

 

As a seasoned All-State musician by age 16, I auditioned for numerous collegiate music programs, eventually making the decision to attend UMass Amherst with a focus in music performance. It was not long before realizing this was not the career I ultimately wanted to pursue, so after one year at the university, I made the decision to spend the following year apart from formal education to work on a full-time basis and reassess my goals. Primed and rejuvenated, I decided to develop my biggest strength and pursue a career in technical design, leading to my admission into Wentworth Institute of Technology.

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My major during my first year at WIT was not engineering, but architecture. My family consists of a long line of architects, planners, and contractors, so this seemed entirely logical. However, after a year of sketches and 3D models of unrealistic structures, I decided I wanted to study something more "real" and less abstract in regard to building design, so I decided to transfer to civil engineering, which would be the major in which I received my bachelor's degree.

After graduation, I worked for 3 years as a structural engineer in Boston, but I always felt there was something missing; the work was interesting, but an intellectual void remained unfulfilled. As the Space Shuttle program wound down, I had a conversation with a friend outside of a local bar that reignited my lifelong passion for space. Over the following 12 months, I realized that this was it. This was the career that was meant for me. I did extensive research and applied to graduate school, choosing the college that was furthest away from Boston.

 

During the summer of 2013, I packed up my Toyota Camry and on my own, drove more than 3000 miles to San Jose, California in order to follow this life-long dream. I began my graduate studies at SJSU that August and graduated 2 years later with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. A few months after graduating, I was hired by SpaceX as a propulsion engineer and moved to central Texas, where I remained for 3.5 years working on Falcon 9 main engines, primarily the MVacD engine of the second stage.

 

Following my time at SpaceX, I had a few different offers on the table but ultimately decided to take a position with United Launch Alliance in Denver, Colorado, where I reside today.