Shelia Nash-Stevenson

Shelia Nash-Stevenson is an integration engineer for the Planetary Programs Missions Office at Marshall Space Flight Center. She was the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in physics at the Alabama A&M University.

Shelia Nash-Stevenson
Alma materAlabama A&M University
Scientific career
InstitutionsMarshall Space Flight Center
Hughes Aircraft Company

Early life and education

Nash-Stevenson was born and raised in Lawrence County, Alabama.[1] She graduated from Austin High School at the age of sixteen.[2] She studied science and electronic and electrical engineering at Alabama A&M University in 1981.[3][4] She was the first person to graduate from the Alabama A&M University physics masters program, where she was a NASA Fellow.[2] She worked at Marshall Space Flight Center. Her professor, M. C. George, encouraged her to enter a PhD program.[2] She was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in physics at the Alabama A&M University in 1994.[1] During her postgraduate studies she had two children.[2] She is three-times Magna cum Laude.[1] At the time she was one of fewer than twenty African-American women with a physics PhD in the United States.[1][5] She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[4] She worked on photon avalanche upconversion.[6]

Career

Nash-Stevenson joined the United States Army Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command.[1] She holds a patent for an optical fiber holder.[1] She joined Nichols Research Corporation as a scientist, then Hughes Aircraft Company as a technical researcher.[3] She joined the instrumentation group in Marshall Space Flight Center's avionics lab, where she worked for nearly ten years.[2] She was awarded a NASA Fellowship in 1998, and eventually joined the space craft and vehicle systems group.[2][7] During her fellowship she returned to Alabama A&M University as a professor. She was at Kennedy Space Center to watch the STS-95 launch.[7] She spoke at the 2013 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics.[8]

In 2013 Huntsville, Alabama recognised her efforts for the community. She is the only African-American to serve on the Madison City School Board[1][9] and she's a member of the Madison Rotary Club.[3][10]

She won the Modern Figure award of NASA and was selected to attend the premiere of Hidden Figures.[1][11] She took part in several panel discussions and interviews after the film was released.[2][12][13][14][15][16] She gave the convocation talk at Elms College in 2017.[17] In 2018 she was honoured by the WEDC Foundation Women Honoring Women program.[18] She was featured in the AT&T Alabama African-American calendar.[19]

References
  1. "Dr. Shelia Nash-Stevenson". 2018 Alabama African American History Calendar. 2017-07-30. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  2. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (2017-03-02), Dr. Shelia Nash-Stevenson, retrieved 2018-09-10
  3. "Convocation Speaker 2017: NASA Engineer and STEM Pioneer Shelia Nash-Stevenson, Ph.D. - Elms College". Elms College. 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  4. "Madison, AL - Official Website". www.madisonal.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  5. "The Women of Alabama A&M University" (PDF). AAMU. 2011. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  6. Patel, Darayas N.; Reddy, B. Rami; Nash-Stevenson, Shelia K. (1999-05-20). "Photon-avalanche upconversion in thulium-doped lutetium aluminum garnet". Applied Optics. 38 (15): 3271–3274. doi:10.1364/AO.38.003271. ISSN 2155-3165.
  7. "NASA Educational Fellowship Program Lets Marshall Engineer". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  8. "Speakers and Panelists – Southeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at UCF". sciences.ucf.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  9. "Tech-savvy teachers put skills to the test in citywide competition - eCampus News". eCampus News. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  10. "Madison City Employees of the Year Awards 2016 – Rotary Club of Madison". www.madisonalrotary.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  11. "NASA engineer to deliver Elms College convocation address". masslive.com. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  12. "Hidden Figures screening & panel discussion". www.intrepidmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  13. Crocker, Steve. "Modern 'Figures': NASA engineers hope to inspire other women of color in science". http://www.wbrc.com. Retrieved 2018-09-10. External link in |work= (help)
  14. FOX. "Go Backstage - 'Hidden Figures' (Stephanie Wilson, Bill Barry, Shelia Nash-Stevenson)". KRIV. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  15. "Not So Hidden Figures". www.newyorkminutemag.com. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  16. "A NASA Historian Talks HIDDEN FIGURES and John Glenn's Legacy | Nerdist". Nerdist. 2016-12-24. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  17. "http://iobserve.org/2018/07/18/president-harry-e-dumay-celebrates-first-year-of-leadership-at-elms-college/". iobserve.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10. External link in |title= (help)
  18. "Honorees | WEDC Foundation". wedcfoundation. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  19. Davenport, Fred (2017-11-10). "AT&T unveils 2018 Alabama African-American calendar". WVTM. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
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