Press Release

Former Georgia resident named ‘Outstanding Achiever’ at NASA Marshall Center

By SpaceRef Editor
September 5, 2002
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Lorna Graves Jackson, an electrical engineer and aerospace technologist at
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., was honored this
week with an Outstanding Achievement Award for service to the Marshall
Center and NASA.

The award was presented Aug. 26, during a Women’s Equality Day ceremony at
the Center. Jackson was recognized for her technical ability, creativity
and leadership in the Avionics Department at the Marshall Center.
Nominations for Women’s Equality Day awards were made by Marshall employees,
based on traits that demonstrate professional excellence, including job
performance, leadership, mentoring and self-development.

A 1977 graduate of Columbia High School in Decatur, Ga., Jackson earned an
associate of arts degree at the Oxford College of Emory University in
Oxford, Ga., in 1979, and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology
in Atlanta in 1982 with a degree in electrical engineering.

A Marshall Center employee since 1986, Jackson is the avionics lead engineer
for vehicle integrated performance analysis activities on NASA’s Space
Launch Initiative – a NASA-wide research and development program designed to
improve safety, reliability and cost effectiveness of space travel for
second-generation reusable launch vehicles. The program is managed by the
Marshall Center.

Jackson has worked on many of the Marshall’s top programs, providing power
subsystem design, engineering development, testing and documentation for the
Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Jackson also has
played a key role as an avionics lead subsystem engineer for systems studies
on the Space Launch Initiative.

Jackson has received several awards during her career, including a NASA
Exceptional Achievement Medal and a Space Flight Awareness “Honoree,” which
recognizes employees for their dedication to quality work and flight safety.
Jackson volunteers as a mentor for three of Marshall’s education programs,
and was instrumental in organizing an open house for the Avionics
Department.

Jackson and her husband Kurt, also a Marshall Center avionics engineer, have
two children, Quinn and Paige. Born in Boston, Mass., where she grew up in
the suburb of Everett, Jackson finished high school in the Atlanta, Ga.,
area. Jackson is the daughter of Paul and Olive Adler of Ocala, Fla.

SpaceRef staff editor.