Meet: Susan Tilley

Project Supervisor

What I do at NASA

As Project Supervisor for SpaceLife ExPress, I was responsible for organizing the many areas of the project. My first task was to interview the student applicants who wanted to work on SpaceLife ExPress. It was very difficult to choose who to hire because we had many talented applicants. Next I had to find a room to use for our lab and arrange to get computers to put in it.

I worked with the student designers to decide on the look and format of our publication. We had to take into account the audience-who would read it, the subject-what we wanted to say, and the budget. Once we had a design, I worked with the students to develop graphics, experiments, and activities that would go with the stories that the teacher/consultants were writing. In the process of developing all these activities, I learned a lot about what it is like to study life science in space.

How I got this job

I was at the end of my graphics/multimedia internship at Ames when I heard that the STELLAR program was looking for someone to be Project Supervisor for a classroom publication about the Neurolab mission. With my background in graphic design and my interest in education, I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me. And it was.

Other things I find interesting

I am interested in multimedia, graphic design, and computer art. I have a Web site that I designed and maintain for the 99s, a women's flying club I belong to.

When I am not working, I like to go flying with my friends in the 99s. I am a pilot and I fly a Cessna 152 out of San Jose Airport in California.

For the last seven years, I have been studying Shotokan Karate at Foothill College. I am a brown belt (3rd kyu.) I like karate because you can go to class and yell and kick and punch all you want and nobody gets mad at you.

My cat, Tyche, is an American Gray Tabby. That is a fancy way of saying that she is gray with tiger stripes. She just had her sixth birthday.