Director of Marshall Space Flight Center Jody Singer encourages HHS students to follow their dreams.
Jody Sandlin Singer graduated from Morgan County High School (now Hartselle High School) in 1979. She enjoyed math and science but never imagined holding her current position. “If you were to ask me would you think you could do Wernher von Braun’s job, who was the first director of Marshall Space Flight Center, I would've said no,” Singer said. Singer is the 14th Center Director of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).
Singer remembers her time at Hartselle with fond memories. She enjoyed football season, sports, hanging out with her friends, and simply growing up. She named Mrs. Wherry and Coach Booth as teachers who were tough and fair, preparing Singer for college and her current career. During her junior year, she honed in on her love for math. Her mother’s boss at Copeland invited her to shadow him. She explained, “As a result of that, he and I sat down at the end of the day and he asked me the things I liked to do. He encouraged me, based on the input I gave him, to pursue engineering, and he was specific in saying, ‘I think you might like industrial engineering.’ ” So, when she attended the University of Alabama, she declared her major in industrial engineering.
Industrial engineering fit Singer perfectly. She said, “I was always interested in the manufacturing process. I liked systems thinking. I liked seeing things come together at the same time and think about the most optimal way of doing it.” She encourages Hartselle High School students to pursue their dreams as well. She said, “If being involved in STEM is their dream, and they literally want to work on things out of this world, then go for it and reach for the stars.” She warned that it would not be easy. Students must be constantly developing themselves, technically and in leadership skills.
Now, as Director of Marshall Space Flight Center, the majority of Singer’s day is filled with communications. She has six thousand on or near site people working with the Center, so it would be impossible to meet with everyone. Instead, she explains, she meets with the people leading those teams. She also must regularly connect with the nine other center directors in the country. She also appears in the community, speaking to university students, government partners, or even going on the TODAY show. She says, “A lot of my job is huge communication and talking about our mission, the projects we’re working on, and how we want to partner with folks.”
Singer described three times in her career that stood out. The first one, she explained, was when she was the first female project manager of the reusable solid rocket booster. She said it was a proud moment not only because she was the first female but also because she was part of a team that launched the space shuttle, delivered seven astronauts into space, and returned them home. Singer said her second most memorable moment was being named the 14th Director of Marshall Space Flight Center. Lastly, she expressed her gratitude toward the team around her. She said, “No one does it without a team, and so my proudest moment is when I see the folks that are around me rise. I see them do impossible tasks every day. It means so much to see somebody just take it forward and just knock it out of the ball park. That is a prize bigger than yourself because you’re doing something for the country, something for this nation, that is bigger than yourself and that I know that will make such a big difference in space exploration.”
Lynn Garrison, MSFC Engineer and 1980 Morgan County High School graduate, said she was friends with Singer in high school and even neighbors at one point. She is very proud of Singer, saying she works very hard and is very respected by MSFC. Garrison said, “I think it is important for students at Hartselle High School to know about former Hartselle students and what they have accomplished. Students should know that they can achieve whatever they set their mind to and should never sell themselves short on their abilities.”
Currently, Singer says her team’s first priority is the Artemis Program. She said, “We will be returning to the moon with the first woman and the next man by 2024, and Marshall Space Flight Center, from launching the Rockets to landing on the surface of the moon, is heavily involved in that from the space launch system, which is the next heavy lift vehicle, that’s the only vehicle designed to do this capability-- to lift humans to space.” In addition to that, Marshall is working on life-support systems, advanced manufacturing, and developing the landing system.