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I actually didn't know what an engineer
really was until I was about 13 years old.

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I had always been interested in
space, planets, you know, our solar system

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and stars, and I was also interested in
design. So then I watched the movie

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Apollo 13 and I learned what aerospace
engineering was, and how that was a

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beautiful marriage of my love of space
and my love of design, and then I had

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something to shoot for. And I fell in
love with NASA.

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Conversations with Goddard
Featuring: Jody Davis

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I'm the deputy payload systems
engineer on WFIRST, at Goddard. So, my

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education background, I went to Embry-
Riddle Aeronautical University and I got

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my bachelor's in aerospace engineering.
Then I went on to grad school at UVA and

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got a master's in aerospace and
mechanical engineering. Before all of

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that I fell in love with flying. I was in
high school right about the time that I

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was learning to drive.
I started flying. Before school I

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would go fly, get my hours in, and then
after school I would work at a hair

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salon to actually pay for my flying
lessons, and I ended up getting my

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pilot's license by senior year of high
school.

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I like to do STEM outreach a lot,

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and at one point I was like, "You know
what? I really would love to do

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international STEM outreach."
I found a nonprofit organization in

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Tanzania called Project Inspire, and I
went out and I talked about NASA with

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them for two and a half weeks. I plan to
go back about every other year.

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I like challenges, and I came up with this idea
once I started running marathons, and I

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want to run a marathon on every
continent before I'm 50. The last one I

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ran was in Iceland, and then the next one
that I have planned is to run the Mount

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Fuji marathon in Japan. Yes, I did climb
Kilimanjaro I still can't believe it.

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It's a 19,300 foot peak, it was the
hardest thing I've ever done.

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And getting to the top, you're kind
of almost euphoric. What I enjoy most

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about working at Goddard, is the people.
To tie it all together we have a very

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capable, hard-working team, and I crave
that highly collaborative environment,

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where even as issues crop up you know
that you can pull your team together and

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find the right answer. My six-word memoir
is she inspired and uplifted the world.

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[Music]

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