2022 HENAAC Awards

Education: Master’s, Systems Engineering, Cornell University; Bachelor’s, Aerospace Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

In just under eight years with the Boeing Company, Nathalie Quintero has distinguished herself as an energetic, accomplished space systems engineer and effective leader. She is currently the lead engineer for Boeing core stage 1 operations supporting the NASA Artemis 1 space program that will return humanity to the moon and ultimately take us to Mars. She is also the integrated test and checkout test lead, responsible for the planning, integration, and execution of test readiness requirements in support of the test campaign.

Growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, it was her military pilot father who first ignited her passion for aviation.  After researching programs around the globe, Nathalie applied to and was accepted at world-renowned Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and moved to the U.S. when she was just 17.

It wasn’t easy for her to do so; she left behind a family struggling to cope with the political and economic crises back home and found the language and cultural barrier difficult. But she persevered and continued her education at M.I.T. for a postgraduate certificate, and then to Cornell for her Master’s degree.

Her contributions to the space program have been recognized by both Boeing and NASA.  In 2021, she received Boeing’s Florida Space Coast Operations Engineer of the Year Award for her work on the Boeing space launch system at Kennedy Space Center. She also won the NASA Space Flight Awareness Trailblazer Award, as well as the Senator Hukill Medallion of Excellence from the Florida Senate.

On her own initiative, she founded a project she calls STEM for Aerospace, through which she uses social media platforms to expose young students to careers in STEM in both English and Spanish. She has participated in virtual speaking engagements with communities in Venezuela, Colombia and at U.S. colleges.