Wendy Okolo

Wendy Okolo

Wendy Okolo is an aerospace research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at National Aeronautics and Space Administration – NASA Ames Research Center. She is known as the first Black woman to obtain a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Wendy Okolo is also the Special Emphasis Programs Manager for Women at Ames Research Center. Her interest spans Intelligent Systems, Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) and robotics with aerospace applications.

Wendy Okolo obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 2010 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering also from the University of Texas at Arlington. During her undergraduate degree, she served as president of the Society of Women Engineers at the university.

Wendy started her career as an intern for Lockheed Martin in 2008, working on NASA’S Orion Spacecraft. She later interned with the Requirements Management Office in Systems Engineering and the Hatch Mechanism team in Mechanical Engineering. Wendy further worked in the Control Design and Analysis Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a graduate student.

Wendy currently works as a Research Engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center, a role she assumed in 2016. In her role, she conducts research and develops solutions to aerospace engineering problems in systems health monitoring and systems application with the Diagnostics and Prognostics team in the Discovery and Systems Health (DaSH) technical area. 

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Wendy also leads the controls team on the STMD Early Career Initiative Project Pterodactyl to advance the guidance and control technologies that will enable precision landing for deployable entry vehicles. She is also a sub-project manager on the System-Wide Safety Project, where she leads a team to develop the monitoring, predictive and mitigation capabilities that will enable the safe operations of unmanned vehicles in the national aerospace.

Wendy is a recipient of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 2021, DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship (2012), AIAA John Leland Atwood Graduate Award (2013), BEYA Global Competitiveness Conference Award (2019) for the Most Promising Engineer in the United States Government, and Women in Aerospace Award (2019) for Initiative, Inspiration and Impact.

Wendy also received the NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award in 2019 and the University of Texas at Arlington Distinguished Recent Graduate Award, also in 2019.