After Hidden Figures, new program seeks to flood aerospace with women

Enlarge / A new mentorship program seeks to honor the memory of Brooke Owens. (credit: Brooke Owens Fellowship Program)

Lori Garver had just boarded a plane last June when she heard that her young friend, D. Brooke Owens, had passed away. Owens, 35, had had terminal cancer for a long time, but the moment still stung Garver, the former deputy NASA administrator. She'd mentored Owens toward her dream of running an airport, and the two had become close.

During those few minutes before the plane took off, Garver said she just couldn't let it go. So she dashed off an e-mail to friends and colleagues in the aerospace business—chief executives, managers, and bright, young chiefs of staff she'd worked with at NASA and in the White House. Would they be interested in mentoring young women interested in getting into the aerospace industry?

"My goal, sitting on that airplane, was to get five or maybe at most 10 internships," Garver told Ars in an interview. But by the time her flight had landed, Garver's inbox was full with interested companies. Two other close friends of Owens—Cassie Lee, the director of Aerospace Applications at Vulcan, Inc., and William Pomerantz, the vice president of special projects at Virgin Galactic—said they wanted to help organize the program. On Wednesday, less than a year after her passing, the Brooke Owens Fellowship Program launched with 36 paid internships.