Caribbean/Trinbagonian aerospace engineer and science ambassador, Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, has created a legacy at NASA in National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Born in Port of Spain in 1966, Dr. Alleyne is a scientist in NASA’s Space Program where she holds the position of Associate Program Scientist for the International Space Station (ISS), at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
As a child, she attended St. Francois Girls’ College in Belmont, where she excelled in analytical subjects, such as Mathematics & the sciences. Following this, she moved to the US to pursue her tertiary education in mechanical engineering, after which she was recruited by NASA to work as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Dr. Alleyne was an essential part of the teams that worked on both NASA’s Constellation program, and the Orion project, after which she was appointed to the International Space Station (ISS) Program in Texas, which is currently NASA’s only human space-flight programme.
Her roles include ensuring transparency via communicating the ISS’s accomplishments with the public, NASA, the U.S. Congress, as well as with the scientific and educational communities.
She considers the presence of women – especially women of colour – vital to the growth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To achieve this, she founded The Brightest Stars Foundation to inspire young women into becoming future leaders in STEM, one of whom was Dr. Alexandra Amon, a world-leading Trinbagonian astrophysicist who works at Princeton University.
Dr. Alleyne has been commended by NASA for her outstanding leadership, and has been awarded on numerous occasions, including the Outstanding Woman in Aerospace Award by the National Society of Black Engineers. In 2011, NIHERST named her as an icon in Caribbean Science and Technology.
