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Inami Noriaki was born in Japan in 1977. In 2002, he was hit by a car while walking in Los Angeles. The doctors amputated his left leg, and he now walks with a prosthetic.

Inami started playing wheelchair basketball, and won the wheelchair basketball championship in Japan. The championship match was watched by the Emperor of Japan, and he was able to meet and talk with the Emperor. He then joined IBM as a system engineer.

In 2005, Inami applied for space travel with Virgin Galactic, and was selected as one of the company's first space travelers. He was the youngest space traveler at Galactic at the time. In 2007, Inami successfully completed 6G gravity training at a space training centrifuge. In 2009, he completed zero gravity training onboard a parabolic flight. With his space flight now close ahead, he is living an exciting life every day.

Inami says: "My mission is to show that people with disabilities can also go to space, and just as importantly -- not just go to space, but operate successfully and effectively in space ."

Sina Bahram is the President and founder of Prime Access Consulting, Inc. (PAC) and also serves as an invited expert on working groups and standards bodies, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) working group. He also mentors colleagues across multiple fields, and is a board member and project advisor on several initiatives.

In 2012, Sina was recognized as a White House Champion of Change by President Barack Obama for his doctoral research work enabling users with disabilities to succeed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. Sina believes that accessibility is sustainable when it is adopted as a culture, not just a tactic, and he is dedicated to shaping the next generation of digital accessibility standards and best practices.

Centra (Ce-Ce) Mazyck, a born athlete, fell in love with the game of basketball and became a high school basketball star. In 1995, she enlisted in the U.S. Army to pursue her dreams in education and she quickly fell in love with serving her country.

On November 26th, 2003, as a First Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, Ce-Ce suffered a life-changing injury that damaged her spinal cord. Doctors told her that she would never walk again, but this didn’t slow her down.
Being a single mother to her son, Tristen, challenged her to push the limits. After vigorous rehabilitation, she went back to school and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at the University of South Carolina.

She returned to sports as a paralympic athlete, placing first in javelin at the paralympic trials in 2012. She went on to win bronze at the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2013, and continues to be dedicated to inspiring audiences both young and old all around the world.

Mona Minkara earned her doctorate in chemistry at the University of Florida and bachelor's in chemistry and middle eastern studies at Wellesley College. Now, she is Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Northeastern University and leads the Minkara COMBINE (Computational Modeling for BioINterface Engineering) Lab researching pulmonary surfactant.

Minkara serves on the Chemists with Disabilities Committee for the American Chemical Society, is a member of the Disabilities Outreach and Inclusion Community for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and works with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She also designed a completely accessible science curriculum for blind and sighted youth with Empowerment through Integration (ETI) and maintains the online Blind Scientist Tools serving as an encyclopedic reference for the tools she uses in her career.

Minkara's current work with the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT) and the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) advocates for making STEM accessible to the blind community. She also produces the original YouTube documentary series, “Planes, Trains, and Canes” focusing on public transportation and accessibility.

Sawyer Rosenstein is an avid space enthusiast and news producer at WPBF 25 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He previously hosted a weekly on-air segment called "Science with Sawyer", where he helped simplify some of the largest scientific news of the week, and he is currently host of the popular Talking Space podcast.

Through the podcast, he became the youngest member of the NASA press corps at 17, covering the final space shuttle launch as media in 2011. He has covered dozens of launches since then, including every flight during the Commercial Crew Program and most recently Inspiration 4. He was formerly a flight director with the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education for 12 years, directing simulated space missions to the moon, Mars, and to rendezvous with a comet along with teaching other STEM concepts such as Lego Robotics and 3D printing. Sawyer has also interned with the communications office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dana Bolles earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering, then began her work at NASA where she served as a payload safety engineer and was part of a program focused on minimizing mission risks to human exploration of space. Today, she works at NASA Headquarters as a science communications program manager. In this role, she manages the day-to-day operations of a website focused on getting science out to the widest possible audience. Dana has learned that in almost any type of job, increasing numbers of people are realizing the importance of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.

She lives her life outside of the status quo on almost every level, as a queer, disabled, woman of color, half asian and half latina. Although she has lots of intersectionalities, people respond most to her disability, making assumptions about what she can’t do. She believes that being an AstroAccess Ambassador is a step forward for all in her community, highlighting the abilities of ALL for mission success!

Dana currently serves as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador. This program brings together 125 women from a variety of STEM careers to serve as high-profile role models for middle school girls. By highlighting women in STEM who are contributing in all these fields, AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadors like Dana show girls the different career pathways they can pursue and how STEM impacts their lives every day.

Viktoria Modesta is a bionic pop artist and creative director. Her work bridges music, body art, sculptural tech-fashion and an otherworldly narrative. Dedicated to changing the world’s perspective on post-disability, Viktoria brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work, connecting the art community and innovation to pop culture.

Wearing a diamond-encrusted prosthetic, she performed as the Snow Queen during the 2012 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony and has racked up millions of views online for her viral music video “Prototype” with Channel4.

She was also a member of the 2015 Cohort of Director’s Fellows at MIT Media Lab, and she has headlined a run of sold-out shows at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, represented global brands Rolls Royce and Snap, and toured the world as a performing artist and keynote speaker.

Mary Cooper (she/her) is a student pursuing a Masters of Science in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering at Stanford University, where she recently graduated with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering & Computer Science. Mary is a champion athlete and a below-the-knee amputee. She is also a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellow, 2020 Lime Connect Fellow, and a 2021 Matthew Isakowtiz Fellow. Mary worked at SpaceX on the astronaut training team to help prepare Polaris Dawn, NASA Crew-5 and Crew-6 for spaceflight. Mary flew as part of the Mobility Crew on MAA1.

Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen (she/her) is an associate professor at Bowling Green State University. She earned her PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo in linguistics. Sheri’s research interests are in social aspects of astrobiology, disability studies, and how body shape and sensory input might affect language structure of any extraterrestrial intelligence we may someday find. She is the 2022-2023 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. Sheri flew as part of the Blind Crew on MAA1.

Eric Ingram (he/him) is the Founder and CEO of SCOUT Inc., a U.S.-based company developing orbital products and services to enable a new era of space safety and transparency. He is also a Board Member at the Space Frontier Foundation. Previous to SCOUT, Eric served as an Aerospace Engineer for the Licensing and Evaluation Division of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Eric flew as part of the Mobility Crew on MAA1.

Eric Shear (he/him) is a graduate student at the University of Florida, where he is studying chemical engineering with the goal of working in the space industry on life support and in-situ resource utilization. Eric currently works as a research assistant at the University of North Florida on novel hydrogen production techniques. He previously earned degrees in physics and planetary science at York University in Toronto. Eric flew as part of the Deaf Crew on MAA1.

Lucas Radaelli (he/him) is blind and was born in Brazil. He works as a senior software engineer at Google in San Francisco, California. Lucas is a tech lead in a team that develops accessibility solutions for people with disabilities. He wants to advance STEM accessibility for blind people so they can pursue careers in engineering and mathematics.

Denna Lambert (she/her) is currently serving as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Lead for NASA's Early Stage Innovations & Partnerships (ESIP) portfolio within the Agency Space Technology Mission Directorate located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Denna received her Master's in Public Administration from the George Washington University and her bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.

Dr. Carlos Archilla-Cady (he/him) currently works as a Pediatric Anesthesiologist in Orlando, Florida and is a Veteran of the United States Navy. Carlos is a bilateral cornea transplant recipient. He has conducted visual physiology experiments examining the effects of microgravity on eye health and would like to advance research on visual physiologic changes experienced in space travel. After executive education at the Harvard and Wharton Schools of Business, he recently obtained a Global Executive Master’s in Business Administration from the IESE Business School.

Victoria Garcia (she/her) works at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center as a launch vehicle systems engineer.  Her work includes several projects that further technology for human space exploration. Victoria was born Deaf and often serves as a guest speaker for students of all ages.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Sheila Xu (she/her) is currently pursuing dual MPP and MBA degrees at Harvard University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Sheila earned her Bachelor of Science in Humanities and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the first Deaf Asian female pilot and has interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sheila is interested in developing and investing in accessible space technology and advocating for policy changes to open up aerospace and aviation traditionally closed to people with disabilities.

Dr. K Renee Horton (she/her) is a hard of hearing advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM and the founder of Unapologetically Being, Inc. She is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Renee is also the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Material Science with a concentration in Physics from the University of Alabama. She currently works as a NASA Airworthiness Deputy on the Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstrator project.

Jose Luis de Augusto (he/him) is an aerospace engineer,commercial pilot, flight instructor, and a wheelchair user. Jose has worked at Airbus as a certification engineer and a flight test engineer. In 2019, he founded Newwings, a pilot school for persons with disabilities. Jose was among the pre-selected candidates for the European Space Agency’s "Parastronaut Project."

Michi Benthaus (she/her) earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechatronics Engineering and is pursuing a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on space and astrophysics at the Technical University of Munich. She is currently doing an internship at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Michi is a sports enthusiast who loves to play wheelchair tennis and go-karting.

Dwayne Fernandes (he/him) is an Indian-Born Australian and a double amputee. He works as a New South Wales (NSW) Accessible Delivery manager for the state government. Dwayne also co-founded Minds at Play, a national social gaming company that builds essential social and communication skills for players through games like Dungeons and Dragons and Minecraft. He works on engaging and expanding people's understanding of disability inclusion when it comes to infrastructure, service delivery, and employment.

John D. Kemp (he/him) is a person with a disability and a graduate of Georgetown University and Washburn University School of Law. John co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities, serves as President & CEO of Lakeshore Foundation and chairs Delta Air Lines’ Advisory Board on Disability. John has been awarded the Henry B. Betts Award, regarded as America's highest honor for disability leadership and service, and the Dole Leadership Prize, which includes Nelson Mandela and two former U.S. presidents as past honorees.