BROOKE OWENS FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP CHANGES, NEW ADMINISTRATOR

30 MARCH 2026 | The Brooke Owens Fellowship – a highly acclaimed non-profit organization that facilitates aerospace internships and executive mentorship for exceptional undergraduate women and gender minorities – is announcing a change to its leadership structure and team. Founded ten years ago by three aerospace executives to provide opportunities and access to talented female and gender minority students from all backgrounds who had been previously underrepresented in the aerospace industry, the leadership team expanded to include two alumni members in 2020. The leadership will now include an Alumni Leadership Team that will take on greater responsibility for the day to day operations of the organization under the oversight of the Executive Board (Lori Garver, Caryn Schenewerk, and Sirisha Bandla). Additionally, Jacquie Carson will replace Carly Broady as the new Fellowship Administrator.

“With the selection of our 2026 class - our tenth cohort - the program has now supported over 400 ‘Brookies’”, said Lori Garver, co-founder of the Fellowship, “Harnessing the energy and talent of the alumni to play a greater role in leading the organization demonstrates the incredible success of the program to date. Special thanks to Kayla Watson (class of 2018), who has served on the Board since 2020. Kayla has been an outstanding contributor to the team, leading the application and selection process for our last five cohorts. Her positive contributions to the Fellowship have been immeasurable. Additional thanks to Carly Broady for her work on the behind-the-scenes operations of the Fellowship.”

In the new leadership structure, Maddie Kothe will be taking on the role of Chair of the Alumni Leadership Team. Maddie is looking forward to working with the new team members to attack the unique challenges facing them this year.

The Alumni Leadership Team’s initial membership will include:

Maddie Kothe (‘18) (she/her) , Chair: Governance & Finance.

Maddie is a Director at SpaceX where she leads teams recovering spaceships and rockets to be reused after they launch. Previously at SpaceX she was a Dragon Integration Engineer and a Dragon Vehicle Lead where she helped design day of launch operations for astronaut missions and worked with NASA to successfully launch Dragon missions to the International Space Station. She was a Brooke Owens Fellow in 2018 after earning her Bachelors in Engineering Mechanics and Astronautics from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Maddie is driven by the mission to help women realize their dreams and feel empowered in their careers.

Pau Pineda Bosque (‘17) (she/her), Vice Chair: Selection.

Pau Pineda is a Technical Program Manager at Zipline, where she leads the introduction of new production lines for the company’s next-generation autonomous logistics aircraft. She has a background in aerospace testing, with experience at Zipline and previously at Virgin Orbit.

Pau is motivated by building and scaling systems that work in the real world, especially when technology can expand access and reliability for people who are often overlooked by traditional engineering pathways. She was a member of the inaugural Brooke Owens Fellowship class in 2017 and remains committed to mentorship and increasing representation in technical leadership.

Simran Dhoju (‘22) (she/her), Secretary: Summit.

Simran is a Spacecraft Qualification and Test Engineer at Planet Labs, an earth-imaging satellite company, where she also interned during her Brookie summer. At Planet, she leads the testing and derisk of optical telescopes, and runs qualification tests for launch readiness. Born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, she moved to the US for her space dream. Throughout her studies and at her current job, she strives to advocate for international students, and women and minorities in aerospace. She volunteered for Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WoAA) for 3 years and led the organization as the Chair last year.

Ava Badii (‘21) (she/her), Treasurer: Fundraising.

Ava Badii is a Propulsion Engineer at Astranis, joining the geostationary satellite company in 2021 as a Brooke Owens Fellow. At Astranis, Ava led the first builds and tests of spacecraft propulsion systems in a start-up environment, serving as a Responsible Engineer to drive systems from first articles to operational spacecraft. Ava earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. At the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, she built, tested, and integrated systems for the first student-designed, student-built rocket to reach space. Within the Brooke Owens Fellowship, Ava has served as a Regional Coordinator, Summit Coordinator, and an Alumni Mentor. She is humbled to accelerate community-building and professional development for early-career space professionals.

Sarah Lappin (‘21) (she/her), Member at Large: Alumni.

Sarah Lappin is a Back-End Software Engineer at Loft Orbital, where she works on Cockpit, Loft’s mission control software. Sarah has worked at Loft since joining as a Brooke Owens Fellow in 2021. Originally from Scotland, Sarah earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. Throughout her academic and professional career, she has been a strong advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in STEM. She previously served as President of the Edinburgh University Women in STEM Society, co-founded and directed Hello World Hack, and has authored multiple reports on DEI strategy for both industry and higher education.

Catie Spivey (‘21) (she/her), Member at Large: External Communications.

Catie is an Aero-Mechanical Engineer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University, where she was an active member of the Portland State Aerospace Society and helped to design OreSat, Oregon's first satellite. She also founded the PSU “We in Space” group, helping gender minorities to find their place in space. Catie was a 2021 Brooke Owens Fellow where she worked at United Launch Alliance as an Upper Stage Structures Intern.

Nina Arcot (‘20) (she/her), Member at Large: Mentorship.

Nina is a Manufacturing Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, where she works on digital transformation and improving manufacturing processes for satellites and payloads. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University, where she was the Outreach Lead for the Princeton Rocketry Club, tripling the scope of their STEM outreach efforts in her time there. Nina was a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellow on the Mechanical Engineering team at Loft Orbital. Outside of BOF, Nina is on the leadership team of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Early Career Professionals Affinity Group (ECP AG).

Jacquie Carson (she/her), Fellowship Administrator

In her prior role, Jacquie served as an elementary school teacher, where she had the rewarding opportunity to educate young learners at the second-grade level. She is currently advancing her academic pursuits as a doctoral candidate at The George Washington University, having begun her studies in Fall 2022. Jacquie aims to complete her Educational Leadership and Administration program and successfully defend her dissertation by the summer of 2027. Her research focuses on the informal supports that elementary principals provide to bolster teachers’ social emotional well-being. In her personal life, Jacquie values time spent with her family, which includes her husband, Joshua Ingersoll, their son, Henry, and their two dogs, Scout and Sawyer.

ABOUT THE BROOKE OWENS FELLOWSHIP

Created to honor the legacy of a beloved space industry pioneer and accomplished pilot, Dawn Brooke Owens (1980 – 2016), The Brooke Owens Fellowship was established to help address a historic gender imbalance in the aerospace field. The organization provides programming and mentoring designed to serve as an inspiration and career boost for exceptional undergraduates who, like Brooke, aspire to advance the aerospace industry through service. As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the fellowship is dedicated to providing career opportunities and both personal and professional growth for women and gender-minority college and university students in the aerospace industry. The program offers access to real-world opportunities at the nation’s leading aerospace institutions; executive-level mentorship from astronauts, CEOs, and more. As the program’s success expanded, it served as a foundational model for additional aerospace internship programs including the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship, Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, Prospero Fellowship, Zed Factor Fellowship, Zenith Fellowship, Sally Ride Fellowship, and Solastra Fellowship. The Brooke Owens Fellowship is the recipient of the 2017 American Astronautical Society’s Patti Grace Smith Award, the 2018 Space Frontier Foundation’s Stakeholder Expansion Award, and both the Readers’ Choice and the Editors’ Choice for the Unsung Hero of the Year Award from the 2019 SpaceNews Awards for Excellence & Innovation.

ArticlesTess JohnsonApril 1, 2026