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On Dec. 6, 2024, NASA leaders unveiled a portrait of the late Mary W. Jackson, pioneering aerospace engineer and mathematician at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The portrait is displayed at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington.
Jackson accepted a position with the NACA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computers in 1951, where her supervisor was Dorothy Vaughan. In 1958, she became NASA’s first African American female engineer.
In 1979, seeing that the glass ceiling was the rule, rather than the exception for Langley’s female professionals, she made a final, dramatic career change, leaving engineering and voluntarily accepting a reduction-in-grade to serve as an administrator in the Equal Opportunity Specialist field. After undergoing training at NASA Headquarters, she returned to Langley and filled the open position of Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager. There, she worked hard to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. Jackson retired from Langley in 1985.
Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky