Dawn Fredenberg Harms

I spent 40 years in the space and satellite industry, working at tech companies including Space Systems Loral (now Maxar), Boeing and Momentus. I now sit on a number of space start-up and engineering college boards including University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering and California State University-Los Angeles. But my most rewarding roles are being grandma to my 2 lovely granddaughters in Portland, OR, and mentor to young women in the space industry.

When I dropped Mr. Martin's typing class in my junior year to take ecology, he seriously insisted I was making a big mistake that would jeopardize my future employability. I remember being annoyed by his remark at the time, but was able to use this mantra as a weird kind of negative inspiration along the way: "I'll show you, Mr. Martin!" Yeah, I probably need to let go.