A resilient woman who puts her all into an endeavor is one who exhibits strength, flexibility, and unwavering resolve in the face of adversity.
She doesn’t let failures define her path; instead, she relentlessly pursues her goals. Wendy A. Okolo is a historical and modern example of such a woman.
Wendy is an aerospace research engineer from Nigeria who works at NASA Ames Research Center’s Intelligent Systems Division. She is the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. At Ames, Wendy Okolo also serves as the Manager of Special Emphasis Programs for Women.
Following her secondary schooling at Lagos, Nigeria’s Queen’s College, Okolo persisted to move further in her education. She then received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 2010.
In 2015, at the age of 26, she became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from UTA. Atilla Dogan was the supervisor of her doctoral studies. Okolo was president of the university’s Society of Women Engineers while she was an undergraduate.
Okolo began her career working on NASA’s Orion spacecraft as an undergraduate intern at Lockheed Martin. She worked as an intern for two summers with the Mechanical Engineering Hatch Mechanisms team and the Systems Engineering Requirements Management Office.
Okolo later worked as a graduate student at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), specifically in the Control Design & Analysis Branch.
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Okolo works as a Sub-Project Manager in NASA Ames’ Intelligent Systems Division. She works at Discovery and Systems Health Technology (DaSH) as a research engineer.
Among her many honors is the Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA), which is given to the US government’s Most Promising Engineer.
Wendy Okolo has no plans to stop anytime soon. She wants to continue inspiring and reminding women that it’s never too late to improve at anything they do.
