If you ask Johnson Space Center employees why they work for NASA, many will tell you it has always been their dream. For others, landing a job at NASA is an unexpected stop on their career path. Here's a look at where five members of Johnson's team have worked before at NASA and how they help advance the agency's mission today.

Michelle Wood

Before joining NASA about seven years ago, Wood worked as an American Sign Language interpreter. Today, she is an operations support officer, flight controller and instructor at Mission Control.

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Warneck Miller

Miller has been an attorney in Johnson's General Counsel's Office for 12 years. Prior to that, she served as a Social Security Administrative Law Judge and heard disability cases.

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Celeste Badwit Hunter

Budwit-Hunter worked as a technical writer in the oil and gas industry before earning a master's degree in family therapy. She went on to work with the Alcohol and Drug Council (now the Recovery Council) and then as a counselor for students with learning disabilities in private schools. She returned to technical writing while starting a private family therapy practice. After several years of treatment and recovery following a cancer diagnosis, Badwitt-Hunt applied to become the editor of the Director of Flight Operations Procedures Group. She is now the group's lead editor and is training to become a book manager.

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Don Walker

Walker worked as a television production freelancer before joining Johnson's team 38 years ago. Today, Walker is an engineering technician in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, responsible for overall control of the center's television operations.

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Donna Coyle

Coyle earned a bachelor's degree in international relations and then switched careers as an expediter in the oil and gas industry. This role involves working with cross-functional teams to ensure smooth and timely delivery of equipment and materials to job sites. After visiting the site and seeing how the equipment, pipes and steel were made, she was inspired to go back to school and become an engineer. Coyle's grandfather worked for NASA during the Apollo missions, and she decided to follow in his footsteps. She joined the Johnson team in 2021 as a Crew Time Engineer, analyzing astronaut time as a resource to aid decision-making before and during International Space Station expeditions.

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