Organizing Team New draft

Our Team

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Anna Voelker is the founder and Executive Director of the SciAccess, Inc., an international nonprofit organization that promotes disability inclusion in STEM education, outreach, and research. Through SciAccess, Anna leads numerous science accessibility programs, including Mission: AstroAccess and the annual SciAccess Conference, which unites an international audience with a shared passion for science equity.

Anna specializes in accessible science outreach for diverse audiences and is passionate about making STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) accessible to all, as detailed in their 2017 TEDx Talk. Anna is an avid public speaker and has given over 50 presentations on space science accessibility across 4 continents. In 2021, Anna hosted a live NASA event where astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) answered questions from students with disabilities. This was the first ISS event to feature American Sign Language in over a decade. Anna was named a 2018 Brooke Owens Fellow, 2021 Future Space Leader, and previously worked at NASA Kennedy, NASA Goddard, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Ohio State University Department of Astronomy, the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development, and the Aerospace Corporation.

George Whitesides is the Chair of the Space Advisory Board for Virgin Galactic. He was the company’s first CEO, and over the course of ten years brought the company to successful spaceflight operations and a public listing on the NYSE. He served as the Chief of Staff for NASA under President Obama and Administrator Charlie Bolden. He serves on advisory councils for Caltech, Princeton, and the Giant Magellan Telescope. He is committed to opening space for the benefit of all.

Tim Bailey is a catalyst, working in various fields to initiate and accelerate opportunities. For the past 18 years he has been a a part-time Flight Attendant with the Zero Gravity Corporation, racking up over 7,500 parabolas across more than 350 flights. He also serves as Executive Director and Board member for Yuri’s Night, the global nonprofit organization supporting grassroots celebrations on the anniversary of human spaceflight, April 12. Tim has also worked on projects with various agencies including NASA, DARPA, the Department of Energy, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and proud father of two adventurous kids.
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Eric Ingram is the Founder and CEO of SCOUT Inc., a company de-risking space operations with sensor suites that enable spacecraft to see and understand the area around them. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Space Frontier Foundation. He was previously an Aerospace Engineer for the Licensing and Evaluation Division of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he gained expertise in the regulatory environment. Prior to this, Eric was an engineer for Deep Space Industries, where he designed cubesat subsystems for testbed missions. Outside of the space industry, Eric previously served as the President of the United States Wheelchair Rugby Association, leading the USWRA to its largest budget surplus in its 30+ year history. Eric has competed in the sport of wheelchair rugby for 15+ years, competing domestically for several club teams, and internationally with the US Developmental team. Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Old Dominion University, most of a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston, a sport pilot certificate, and is working towards SCUBA certification.
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Dr Jamie L. Molaro is the Executive Director of Disabled for Accessibility in Space (DIAS). Dr. Molaro is a planetary scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and located geographically with host institution the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding the way that rocky and icy materials fracture and break down, driving landscape evolution on asteroids, comets, and moons. She is also a team member on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve a sample of rock from an asteroid surface. Service is an integral part of Molaro’s career, including organizing and running exhibitions and workshops on science and data-driven art, and leading DAIS (Disabled for Accessibility in Space). DAIS is a peer networking, support, and advocacy group for disabled and chronically ill people in space science and related fields and professions, and proud collaborator in Mission: AstroAccess.
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Dr. Ariel Ekblaw is the founder and Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, a team of over 50 graduate students, staff, and faculty actively prototyping the artifacts of our sci-fi space future. Founded in 2016, the Initiative includes a portfolio of 40+ research projects focused on opening access to life in space, and supports an accelerator-like R&D program for payload development and flight testing across MIT and many outreach communities. For the Initiative, Ariel drives space-related research across science, engineering, art, and design, and charters an annually recurring cadence of parabolic flights, sub-orbital, and orbital launch opportunities. Ariel graduated with a B.S. in Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy from Yale University and designed a novel space architecture habitat for her MIT PhD in autonomously self-assembling space structures. Her research work and engineering lab builds towards future habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Ariel’s work has been featured in WIRED (March 2020 cover story), MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, CNN, NPR, PRI’s Science Friday, IEEE and AIAA proceedings, and more. Ariel serves on the NASA Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Executive Committee, guiding and shaping the coming decade of burgeoning activity on the moon, and is the author/editor of the forthcoming "Into the Anthropocosmos: A Whole Space Catalog from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative" with MIT Press (September 2021). Ariel has had the rare honor and pleasure of working directly on space hardware that now resides on the surface of Mars. Humanity stands on the cusp of interplanetary civilization and space is our next, grand frontier. This opportunity to design our interplanetary lives beckons to us—Ariel strives to bring our space exploration future to life.
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Dr. Daniel J. Lundberg is a Deaf professor of chemistry and the director for both the Biology and Chemistry & Physics Programs at Gallaudet University. After becoming deaf from spinal meningitis at the age of 15 months, his family and educators worked hard to ensure he had full access to the knowledge and experiences that his hearing classmates had growing up. After graduating from Gallaudet with a biology B.S., working as a post-bac at the National Cancer Institute, and completing his pharmacology Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Dan returned to his alma mater and has taught at Gallaudet for the past 13 years. He currently serves as the Gallaudet affiliate for the NASA DC Space Grant consortium and is the faculty advisor for the astronomy club. Dan enjoys sharing the wonders of the sciences with his family, students and advocating for the deaf/hard of hearing’s equal access and opportunities in space exploration.
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Rachel Lyons is a key advocate in the advancement of the space perspective and exploration. Rachel is the Executive Director of Space for Humanity, a non-profit organizing the planet’s first Citizen Astronaut Mission led by a diverse group of leaders from around the globe. Rachel is the former Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space – USA, a non-profit that empowers young people to make an impact in space exploration. She is a former public radio host. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and Economics from the University of Miami.
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Michaela Deming graduated cum laude in May 2021 from The Ohio State University (OSU) with a B.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics and a minor in Scandinavian Studies. She began working with the SciAccess Initiative as a member of the OSU Dept. of Astronomy’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program, where she helped organize the SciAccess 2020 Conference. Since then, she helped found the SciAccess Zenith Mentorship Program, serving as its first president from October 2020 to May 2021. A member of Sigma Pi Sigma, her other work in astronomy outreach includes volunteering as a telescope operator at the Smith Lab Observatory, training as a presenter at the Arne Slettebak Planetarium, and giving educational talks to all-ages audiences.
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