Expanding Your Horizons: Women In Aviation
Our conference in 2000 focused on Women In Aviation and offered a variety of opportunities for 8th grade girls to meet people with exciting, aviation related careers—in the wild, blue yonder, in space, and on the tarmac.
Conference Goals: The conference hoped to:
• Increase interest in mathematics and science through hands-on workshops
• Present information about career opportunities for women in math and science
• Provide women role models who are working in non-traditional careers
Biography for Aviation Day's Featured Speaker, Tina Romito Mascaro:
Ms. Mascaro was born in Morgantown, West Virginia. Ms. Mascaro graduated from St. Francis Central Catholic school in 1983. She attended West Virginia University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1988. Following graduation, she moved to Houston working for Rockwell Space Operations Corp, supporting Spare Shuttle Mission Operations. Ms. Mascaro supported various payloads that flew in both the Space Shuttle Payload Bay and the Shuttle mid-deck. She trained astronauts on the operations of the science experiments and supported over 35 Space Shuttle missions from 1989 through 1998. In 1994, Ms. Mascaro became a Payload Officer working in NASA's Mission Control center at the Johnson Space Center. Some of the missions she supported as a Payload Officer include the Hubble Space Telescope repair missions, Tethered Satellite Intelsat and Shuttle Mir Supply missions. She received several awards for her work on these missions and in 1997 received a top NASA award, the Space Flight Awareness Award and was an honoree at the STS-84 Shuttle launch In 1998, Ms. Mascaro moved back to Morgantown and took a position at the NASA Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility working for AverStar, Inc. In November of 1999, she and her husband became the proud parents of a baby boy, Antonio. She is currently the X-Vehicle IV&V Project Manager, supporting NASA technology demonstrator vehicles such as X-33, a possible replacement vehicle for the shuttle, X-34, X-37 and X-38, the Space Station Crew Return Vehicle.
