• Executive Team Member: 2020-2022

Diana Trujillo is a Flight Director at NASA's Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX. As the 108th Flight Director in NASA's history -- and the first born in a Spanish-speaking country -- Trujillo is one of a small cadre who lead the Mission Control Center during all of NASA's human spaceflight missions, including ongoing operations of the International Space Station, the Artemis missions returning humans to the Moon and onward to Mars, and key flights of the Dragon, Cygnus, and Starliner orbital vehicles.

Prior to her current position, Trujillo played a key role in three landmark robotic missions to Mars: Curiosity and Perseverance, the most advanced Mars rovers ever built; and Ingenuity, the first helicopter to fly on another planet. Over the course of fourteen years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she held a number of leadership roles on those missions, including Flight Director, Mission Lead, Deputy Project System Engineer, Deputy Team Chief of Engineering, and Robotic Arm Science phase lead.

Born and raised in Colombia, Diana immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 to pursue her dream of working for NASA. She enrolled in English as a Second Language courses, working full-time to support her studies in community college and later at the University of Florida and University of Maryland. After graduating, she worked on the Cygnus International Space Station resupply vehicle before joining JPL.

Outside of her work at JPL, Diana is also a board member of the Columbia Memorial Space Center and of the Children’s Center at Caltech. She is also a passionate advocate for diversity in STEM, having pushed for more inclusion of the Latinx community in venues ranging from the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics to the educational program Plaza Sésamo (Sesame Street).  A personal friend of Brooke Owens, the namesake of this Fellowship, Diana has been involved in the program from its earliest days as a leader, mentor, coach, and selection committee member.