Mary Jackson: podcast appearances and interviews

Mary Jackson (April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005) was an American aerospace engineer and mathematician who worked at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, later known as NASA. She was employed at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, starting as a computer in the West Area Computing division in 1951. After taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer in 1958. She spent most of her career at NASA, ultimately earning the most senior engineering title available. Recognizing the limitations of career advancement without supervisory roles, she chose to accept a demotion to become a manager of the Federal Women's Program in the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and the Affirmative Action Program. In this capacity, Jackson worked to influence the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, engineering, and mathematics careers. Her story is prominently featured in the 2016 non-fiction book Hidden Figures and its film adaptation the same year. Posthumously, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019. In 2021, NASA's Washington, D.C., headquarters was renamed the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in her honor.