For more than two decades now, systems engineer Josephine Santiago-Bond has made significant contributions to NASA in the development of its space exploration technologies. She was born to Filipino parents who were pursuing their doctorate studies in the United States at the time.
When she was just a few months old, Josephine — along with her two older sisters — moved to the Philippines with her parents. She grew up in that country, graduating from the University of the Philippines with a B.S. degree in electronics and communications engineering. Santiago-Bond subsequently made her way back to the United States to work in South Dakota for Daktronics, Inc., an electronics company. During her employment there, she pursued her graduate studies at South Dakota State University (SDSU). Santiago-Bond earned her M.S. degree in electrical engineering from there in 2005.
By this time, Santiago had been working as a graduate intern at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, Florida. After graduating from SDSU, however, she began working at KSC as an electrical engineer instead.
Santiago-Bond has since taken on various high-level leadership roles and numerous initiatives at NASA. As founder and longtime chief of the agency’s Advanced Engineering Development Branch, for example, she has collaborated extensively with colleagues across a wide range of professional disciplines to provide technical support for missions both in space and on Earth.
In a 2019 interview with the Philippines-based news portal FlipScience, Santiago-Bond made it clear that her career aspirations have never included being among those individuals who get to travel into space. “I get dizzy just thinking about the training involved and the launch itself,” she admitted. Santiago-Bond further stated, “Astronauts take on the life-threatening risks of spaceflight for the benefit of humankind, and I believe they are exceptional heroes for it. They place a lot of trust and faith on the thousands of support people on the ground, and I’m honored to have the capability and opportunity to be one of those support people.”
Santiago-Bond also discussed her work at NASA in an interview that same year with Asian Journal News. “I always feel that I am valued, not only for my engineering and leadership skills, but also as an Asian American and as a Filipina-American, who brings a unique set of experiences and ideas to the table every day,” she said. “I’m not the only female Filipina-American, nor am I the first, who is in a leadership position at NASA, which in itself makes me proud.”
Photo Credit: NASA
For more information on Josephine Santiago-Bond, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Santiago-Bond
A video featuring Santiago-Bond is available at
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