The NASA Langley Combined Federal Campaign CFC) Chili Cook-Off is fast approaching and we need your help!
Date: Thursday, December 11
Time: 11:00 – 1:00 pm (set-up starts at 10:30 am)
Place: NASA Langley Reid Center (Building 1202 / Integrated Engineering Services Building)
RSVP: Please fill out the google form by Thursday, December 4th (4:00 pm): CFC Chili Cook-Off Participation
(Filling out the form will provide us information on obtaining a one-day badge and your participation at the LAA table).
Neil O’Connor is the LAA organizer for this event (Thanks Neil)!
We plan on setting up a table with multiple chili options. We’ll also be doing some recruiting for the LAA. If you would like to participate by bringing some chili or just helping by staffing the table and/or recruiting, please join us. You can volunteer for one hour and then visit other chili tables if you would like as well. If you typically like to bring something to accompany your chili, such as cornbread, please feel free to do so. Please also bring a serving spoon!
Video and slides from these presentations have now been posted on our Events page.
Come join us for the November 18, 2025, meeting where we will have three LAA members speak about recent trips they have made! We will circle the globe — UPDATE: Roman Perez will speak about his recent cruise to Alaska and Jill Marlowe will discuss her trip to Japan.
Roman Paryz was the Associate Director for Facilities & Labs in the Research Directorate (RD) of the NASA Langley Research Center (LARC). In this position he led the overall technical and administrative direction of RD projects portfolio, and supported the strategic project development and planning for the RD. He served as the RD’s Project Manager for Agency/Center projects deemed unique, high risk and highly visible.
Prior to this position, he was the Branch Head of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Subsonic / Transonic Testing Branch (STTB). Mr. Paryz was also the Center Integration Manager (CIM) for the AeroSciences Evaluation & Test Capability (AETC) portfolio at LaRC which added oversight responsibility for Subsonic and Supersonic wind tunnels at LaRC. His career spans more than 43 years of wind tunnel testing experience encompassing more than 100,000+ test hours.
Prior to NASA, Mr Paryz served as the Director of Calspan’s Transonic Wind Tunnel from 1995 to 2009 with a total Calspan experience spanning 28+ years at this facility. Early in his career, Mr. Paryz performed Weights/Mass Properties analysis at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) Astronautics Division and also was in the Product Development (preliminary design) Group at Boeing (Seattle) analyzing mass properties of the 757 and 767 aircraft and their derivatives. Mr Paryz is an Associate Fellow in the AIAA and has been a member of the Ground Test Technical Committee. He is an Emeritus Member of the Supersonic Tunnel Association International having served as its President. Mr. Paryz received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2016. He acquired B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University in 1978. He is the Assistant Director, Treasurer & Newsletter Editor for the Virginia Eagle Wings Motorcycle Association. He enjoys motorcycling, golf, flying (and successfully landing) radio control aircraft and cruising. Originating from Lancaster NY, he has been married to his wife Joanne for 48 years and has three children and two grandchildren nearing college graduation. He especially likes being retired.
Jill Marlowe is a nationally recognized leader in digital transformation, enterprise strategy, and organizational innovation with nearly two decades of senior executive experience in multiple roles at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She is widely regarded for guiding large, complex organizations through technological disruption, forging high-impact partnerships, and transforming team culture to deliver high-impact results across engineering, research, technology, and business organizations.
Since retiring from NASA in December 2024, Ms. Marlowe has dedicated herself to serving the aerospace community through multiple boards and advisory leadership roles. Ms. Marlowe was recently elected to the Board of Trustees for the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), where she has initially advised on digital strategies shaping the future of the global aerospace profession. She also chairs the Engineering Sciences Research Foundation External Review Board for Sandia National Laboratories, providing congressionally mandated independent oversight of one of the nation’s premier early-stage research portfolios. Ms. Marlowe proudly serves on advisory boards at her alma mater, Virginia Tech, for both the Aerospace & Ocean Engineering (AOE) Department and Center for Research and Engineering in Aero/Hydrodynamics (CREATe) and recently led the AOE Board Strategic Planning Committee to develop and release a future-facing 2025–2030 department strategic plan.
Ms. Marlowe brings 35 years of federal service to these board roles, where her executive acumen was routinely sought out to develop strategies and lead high performing teams to deliver next generation solutions to complex mission and organizational challenges. As NASA’s inaugural Digital Transformation Officer from 2020-2024, she defined and executed the agency’s first digital transformation vision and strategy, built internal and external partnerships, and created and managed an investment portfolio of advanced digital solutions needed to modernize NASA’s work, workforce, and workplace. Her successes included demonstrating the first artificial intelligence model on space station to inspect space suits to ensure safe astronaut EVA, and establishing a comprehensive enterprise digital engineering architecture and roadmap now championed by the Agency Chief Engineer. From 2018-2020, she served as Associate Center Director, Technical at NASA’s Langley Research Center, where she directed the transformation and modernization of the Center’s research and engineering capabilities. From 2009-2018, she served as Engineering Deputy Director and then Research Director, leading teams of 500–1,000 professionals with diverse technical portfolios spanning aerosciences, intelligent flight systems, advanced structures and materials, and measurement technologies. She oversaw safe operations of multi-million-square-foot laboratories and facilities, managed large-scale budgets and programs, and negotiated numerous external partnerships to deliver countless research and technology innovations across NASA’s science, aeronautics, and space exploration missions. She was selected to the Senior Executive Service in 2008 after progressing through numerous technical leadership roles, having spent her early career as a structural analyst designing space-based remote sensing instruments to better understand climate change and external structures for Seawolf and Los Angeles class submarines.
Ms. Marlowe’s recognition includes election to AIAA Fellow, the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, election to the Virginia Tech Academy of Aerospace & Ocean Engineering Excellence and being voted NASA’s Champion of Innovation (2017). She has served on the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) Future Advanced Computing Ecosystem Subcommittee, the Partnership for Public Service Federal Innovation Council, the Old Dominion University College of Engineering Advisory Board, and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium Advisory Board. She holds degrees in aerospace and ocean, mechanical, and civil and environmental engineering from Virginia Tech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and George Washington University.
Video and slides from these presentations have now been posted on our Events page.
Come join us for the upcoming October meeting where the topic will be the 20th Anniversary of Katrina. We have two guest speakers. Dave Throckmorton, Deputy Center Dir of Stennis Space Center at the time of Katrina, will share his experiences involving Katrina at both Stennis & Michoud. UPDATE: Kim Ward, Virginia Air and Space Science Center Gallery Engagement Manger, will be talking to us about volunteer opportunities at the NASA Langley Visitor Center.
Dave Throckmorton served a 41-year career with NASA, beginning as a Co-op Student at NASA Langley in 1966. Following his graduation from Virginia Tech, with a BS in Aerospace Engineering, he became a full-time Langley employee, assigned to the Aerothermodynamics Branch, Space System Division. Subsequently, he received an MS in Aerospace Engineering from George Washington University via LaRC’s graduate education program. He spent the early years of his career performing hypersonic wind-tunnel tests of candidate configurations for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and when the Shuttle program began operations, was one of NASA’s principal interpreters of entry flight data from the Orbital Flight Test missions of the Shuttle Columbia. He was Principal Investigator (PI) for the Shuttle Infrared Leeside Temperature Sensing (SILTS) experiment, one of three entry technology experiments with PIs within the Aerothermodynamics Branch, which flew on Columbia as elements of the agency’s Orbiter Experiments Program.
He was Assistant Head of the Aerothermodynamics Branch from 1984-1994. While in that position, in 1988-1989, he served a Detail Assignment as Director of Base Technology in the National AeroSpace Plane Joint (NASA/DoD) Program Office at Wright Patterson AFB, OH. He was Manager of Langley’s Space Transportation Programs Office, from 1994-2000, responsible for management of LaRC activities supporting the Space Transportation business line, including technology development and technical support for: the Space Shuttle Program, X-33 and X-34 flight test demonstrator projects, and NASA’s Advanced Space Transportation Technology Program. Dave left LaRC in 2000, to become Deputy Director of Engineering at the Marshall Space Flight Center. In that position, he provided leadership for a multidisciplinary workforce engaged in design, development, and testing in support of the broad array of NASA space flight programs including Space Shuttle main engines, external tank, reusable solid rocket boosters; International Space Station environmental control and life support systems, and science experiment payloads. In 2003, in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, Dave was moved to the position of Deputy Director of the Stennis Space Center. Following his retirement from NASA in 2007, he returned to Hampton Roads, and over the next year served as Chair of NASA’s Independent Standing Review Board for the Orion Project. Dave then spent a several years as an independent consultant, providing business development and management consultation services to a variety of commercial clients. In 2012, he became a Northrop Grumman employee, serving as Program Manager for Northrop’s participation in LaRC’s TEAMS2 (Technology, Engineering, and Aerospace Mission Support) contract. And in 2016, became the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Vice President for Research, where he remained until his actual retirement in 2023.
Kim has over 27 years of experience as a classroom educator for students in elementary and middle school grades. She has nearly 10 years of experience as a Science Coordinator for an area elementary school, managing the curriculum and instruction for nearly 250 students, assisting over 20 classroom educators, and acting as the liaison to area high school educators. She joined the VASSC Team in 2024 as VASSC educator and has subsequently taken on the role as Gallery Engagement Manager in 2025. In her current role, she helps place volunteers into unique roles at the Center to expand community involvement and guest relations. Kim hopes you will consider joining the team of volunteers at VASSC.
Video and slides from these presentations have now been posted on our Events page. Photos from the presentation are in the Gallery.
Come join us for the upcoming September 9th meeting where we will feature two guest speakers! Jennifer Inman of Langley’s Aerothermodynamics Branch will speak on the Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery (SCIFLI) Program’s use of telescopes, both ground and flight based, to obtain engineering quality data on spacecraft during launch and reentry. Neyda Abreu, NASA Langley’s Chief Scientist, will give a presentation on the new Emeritus Langley Associate (ELA) Program (formerly the Distinguished Research Associate Program).
Dr. Jennifer Inman currently serves at the Project Manager for NASA’s Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery (SCIFLI) team. In this role, she leads a diverse collaboration of researchers and subject matter experts in acquiring remote engineering flight data from rockets and capsules during spaceflight operations and flight tests to provide the Agency with data-based verification of vehicle design, health, performance, and to validate ground tests and computational modeling tools. She grew up in California, went to high school in Colorado, and came to Virginia for college. She began her NASA career as a graduate student, conducting research in support of the Space Shuttle Return to Flight effort. Before joining SCIFLI, Dr. Inman was part of a research team applying non-intrusive laser-based methods to study hypersonic flow phenomena in NASA’s wind tunnels. She received her B.S. (2000), M.S. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) in physics from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. She currently lives in Williamsburg with her husband Matt and their three kids.
Neyda Abreu currently serves as Center Chief Scientist. She runs the Emeriti Langley Associates Program, the new version the former Distinguished Research Associate Program. She joined NASA in 2020, after 13 years as a geoscience faculty member in the Penn State system. In 2007, she began an assistant professor appointment at Penn State-DuBois. She was promoted to tenured associate professor in 2013, and full professor in 2020. Neyda’s technical and field work have shed light on the processes giving rise to planets, water, and organics in our solar system. She completed her undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota in 2000. She received her doctorate’s degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico in 2007, and a master’s degree in strategic management and executive leadership at Penn State in 2022.
August 12, 11:30 am
Video and slides from this presentation have now been posted. Photos from the presentation are on the Gallery.
The upcoming August 12th meeting will feature two guest speakers who will brief us on the evolution of the HL20 into the Sierra Space Dream Chaser. Walt Engelund, former Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and Frank Taylor, former Senior Director of Technology, Sierra Space will be the speakers.
Walt Engelund served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs in the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters until his retirement in July 2025. He provided executive leadership and execution for a portfolio of 10 space technology programs with an annual investment value of over $1 billion. Prior to his appointment with STMD in 2019, he spent 30 years at Langley Research Center. Most recently he was the Director of the Space Technology and Exploration Directorate. He also served as the Chief Engineer at NASA Langley and was responsible for technical oversight for Langley’s diverse research and development portfolio, spanning aeronautics, human and robotic space technologies, and Earth science and remote sensing systems. Walt is a recognized expert, reviewer, and consultant for hypersonic flight and planetary entry systems for NASA and other government agencies.
Frank Taylor graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineer from Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo in 1984. His last job before retirement in June of 2024 was as a Senior Director of Technology at Sierra Space / Sierra Nevada Corporation in Louisville, Colorado. He was the initial PM / Engineering development team of Dream Chaser for NASA’s CRS2 program from the beginning concept in 2004 with a $90K space grant from California and now is continuing today as a $2B+ program. He has more than 40 years of aerospace experience while working at the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works on YF-22, X-33, JSF and other vehicles. Other activities included Scaled Composites on several aircraft both crewed and RPV and ATK-COI on composite and ceramic structures. A few of his engineering capabilities included: Composite structure, Propulsion systems, Radomes, RF system insulation for Aircraft / Launch Vehicles / Missiles and Small Satellites…… aka Frank “Knows how to spell RCS (2) different ways”.
It was great to see everyone at the LAA Summer Picnic, held on July 8, 2025. Here is the group photo from the event. It is also posted in the Gallery.
