Selected to the NASA Astronaut Corps in April 1996, Dr. Magnus flew on the STS-112 shuttle mission in 2002 and on the final shuttle flight, STS-135, in 2011.  She flew to the International Space Station on STS-126 in November 2008 and served 4 months on board as flight engineer and science officer.  Following her assignment on Station, she served at NASA Headquarters in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office.

While at NASA, Dr. Magnus worked with the international community, including the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), as well as with Brazil on facility-type payloads.  She spent time in Russia developing and integrating operational products and procedures for the International Space Station.

Before joining NASA, Dr. Magnus worked for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company as a stealth engineer.  She worked on internal research and development and on the Navy’s A-12 Attack Aircraft program, studying the effectiveness of radar signature reduction techniques.

Dr. Magnus is a recipient of the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, among other awards.

Dr. Magnus received a bachelor of science in physics and a master of science in electrical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.  She received a Ph.D. in engineering from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996.

Previously serving as the Program Executive Officer, Defense Healthcare Management Systems (PEO DHMS), Ms. Cummings managed the delivery of healthcare and advance data sharing through a modernized electronic health record for service members, veterans, and their families.

Ms. Cummings previously held senior executive positions at the Department of Transportation, where she established strategic direction, provided executive leadership, and managed daily operations as the Executive Director for the Federal Railroad Administration and the interim Executive Director for the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration.

Beginning her career with the Department of the Navy, she held senior positions at the Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Services Command; Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers; Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence; and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Ms. Cummings holds a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and a Master of Science in Management/Information Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology. She received her Bachelor of Science in Business Logistics from the Pennsylvania State University.

Certified in both Program Management and Acquisition Logistics, Ms. Cummings is a graduate of the Naval Air Systems Command’s Senior Executive Management Development Program and the Defense Senior Leader Development Program. Ms. Cummings received Meritorious and Superior Civilian Service Awards from the Department of the United States Navy, Meritorious Public Service Award from the United States Coast Guard, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service.

Donna H. Rhodes is a principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center, and is also affiliated with the MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory. She is co-founder and director of MIT’s Systems Engineering Advancement Initiative (SEAri), and is principal investigator for numerous sponsored research projects. She teaches and advises graduate students across multiple academic and professional programs at MIT. Her research includes architecting complex systems and enterprises, human-model interaction, model curation, and sociotechnical systems design theory. Previously, Dr. Rhodes held senior leadership positions at IBM, Lockheed Martin, and Lucent. She has been very involved in the evolution of the systems engineering field, is a Past President and Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). Her contributions in the systems field have been recognized by numerous publication and journal awards, IBM Outstanding Innovation Award, Lockheed Martin NOVA Award and INCOSE Founders Award. Dr. Rhodes received her Ph.D. in Systems Science from the T.J. Watson School of Engineering at Binghamton University

Alejandro Salado is an assistant professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the director of its systems engineering program at Virginia Tech. He conducts research in problem formulation, design of verification and validation strategies, model-based systems engineering, and engineering education. Before joining academia, Dr. Salado spent over 10 years in the space industry, where he held positions as systems engineer, chief architect, and chief systems engineer in manned and unmanned space systems of up to $1B in development cost. He continues to support organizations in systems engineering and enterprise transformation consulting roles for clients such as the U.S. Army, Apple Inc., and Thales Alenia Space. He was a co-editor of the ISO 21840 standard on Guidelines for the utilization of 15288 in the context of systems of systems engineering, has published over 75 technical papers, and his research has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Naval Surface Warfare Command (NSWC), the Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), among others. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, and several best paper awards. Dr. Salado holds a PhD in systems engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering, electronics engineering, space systems engineering, and project management.

Dorothy McKinney is Director of Advanced Systems Thinking, a systems engineering consulting firm established in 2020. Prior to this, she was founder and CEO of a dot com start-up, ConsideredThoughtfully, which aimed to provide just-in-time information for professionals interested in career development and professional growth.

Dorothy retired in 2014 from Lockheed Martin after more than 34 years with the corporation and its heritage organizations. She spent her last years there as a Fellow Emeritus. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Engineering program at San Jose State University, teaching such subjects as Engineering Management and Software Project Management. From 2002 to 2013, Dorothy developed and taught a course on Requirements Engineering over the internet for Portland State University. Other industry experience included three years at ARGOSystems (a Boeing subsidiary), and nine years at SRI International (formerly called Stanford Research Institute).

Dorothy is an INCOSE Fellow, and is currently leading a team of INCOSE Fellows in an effort to collect and refine systems engineering heuristics. She facilitated the work of the INCOSE Definition team, led by Hillary Sillitto, which resulted in an updated definition of systems engineering in 2019.

Professional society membership includes INCOSE, IEEE and AIAA. Dorothy has been active in the International Council On System Engineering, INCOSE, since 1992, including chairing working groups and a technical committee, developing a train-the-trainer tutorial for the 1994 Symposium, delivering tutorials to INCOSE chapters around the U.S., and participating in panels at INCOSE Symposia. She is a past president of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter, served on the chapter Board of Directors for many years and also has served on the INCOSE Board of Directors. She was the Technical Chair of the INCOSE 2002 and 2007 Symposia (and co-chair in 1994). She served on the IEEE Software Industrial Advisory Board from 2000 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2012.

Mr. Ryan Noguchi is Director of the Space Architecture Department at The Aerospace Corporation. He is responsible for developing and applying disciplined system architecting methods, processes, tools, and models for a diverse set of customers. He has led multiple system modeling pilot projects, and advises Government enterprise and system acquisition program customers in standing up MBSE capabilities. He co-leads Aerospace’s Model-Based Engineering Community of Interest, which has brought together hundreds of Aerospace personnel to share lessons learned and to collaborate on advancing the state of the practice of model-based engineering within Aerospace and with its customers.