2024 Viva Panelists 

Ashlee Autore, My NASA Data

Ashlee Autore is a data scientist and web developer for the My NASA Data and GLOBE teams. She maintains the My NASA Data website, acts as a Subject Matter Expert for Earth Science topics, and analyzes atmospheric data collected through GLOBE Observer. Ashlee earned her B.S. in Meteorology & Climatology from the University of Delaware, and her M.S. in Geography and GIS Certificate from Louisiana State University.

Lauren Childs-Gleason, Process Improvement & Capacity Building Lead, NASA Disaster Response Coordination System

Lauren Childs-Gleason serves as the Process Improvement and Capacity Building Lead for NASA’s Disaster Response Coordination System (DRCS). In this role she is responsible for management of the system’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning efforts, knowledge management, process development and documentation, and training and scenario development. She monitors programmatic activities, conducts assessments, and leads programmatic and process reviews to ensure maximum efficiency, scientific integrity of products, and programmatic value added to the Disaster Response community. Lauren also participates in the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), actively participating in the Working Group for Capacity Building and Data Democracy (WGCapD) and the COAST Virtual Constellation. She serves as Vice Chair of the American Association of Geographer’s (AAG) Applied Geography Specialty Group and Chair of the AAG’s Selection Committee for Best Paper Award in Geography & Entrepreneurship. 

Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, NASA GLOBE Mission EARTH University of Toledo

Dr. Kevin Czajkowski is a Distinguished University Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo. His main areas of interest are remote sensing, physical geography and K-12 outreach.  He leads a large research group investigating the use of remote sensing in water quality and urban heat island effect. He has developed and runs a K-12 educational outreach program called GLOBE Mission EARTH that brings authentic science experiences to K-12 students through teacher professional development and student conferences.  

Dr Brad Hegyi, Research Scientist NASA POWER

Brad Hegyi is a research scientist for the NASA POWER Project team. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Synoptic Meteorology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Georgia Tech. Brad has previously done research on various topics such as the surface energy budget in the Arctic and the upper atmosphere of Earth and other planets in the Solar System. His main duties for the POWER team include developing metrics and statistics from model estimates of future climate to help support planning for future energy use by HVAC systems in buildings. Looking forward to participating later in the week.

Elizabeth R. Joyner, ESDS Community Coordinator, SSAI

Elizabeth Joyner serves as Community Coordinator to promote the use of NASA data and resources with end users. She has been with NASA since 2014 working with Space Grant, NASA’s Science Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center, and currently at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center serving NASA Headquarters’ Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program.

Angie Rizzi, My NASA Data

Angie Rizzi, Task Lead for My NASA Data, joined the team in 2018. She is a highly qualified teacher with over a decade of math, and science instruction, including high school Earth Science. While teaching, she leveraged a dozen years of experience in information technology to incorporate technology and authentic data in the classroom. She is also a seasoned GLOBE teacher who has worked with students to collect, analyze, interpret and present data.

Dr. Kenton Ross, Program Manager NASA DEVELOP Program

Kenton Ross is the Program Manager of the NASA DEVELOP Program. He served as the Chief Scientist for the NASA DEVELOP Program from 2012 to 2023. Prior to that Kent served as a DEVELOP project advisor starting in 2004. With DEVELOP, Kent has advised and mentored over 2,000 young and career transitioning professionals in the application of Earth observations for environmental decision making. In the process of advising and supporting DEVELOP participants, Kent contributed his expertise to completing over 400 applied Earth science capacity building feasibility projects. He has an M.S. in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Purdue University. He has been active in geospatial technologies and remote sensing for over 30 years and has supported Earth science applications with NASA and NOAA for over 20 years.

Desiray Wilson, My NASA Data

Desiray Wilson is a Scientific Programmer on the My NASA Data team, where she specializes in developing interactive NASA Earth Science data visualizations for teachers and grade 3-12 students. She obtained her B.S. in Geology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2019 and her M.S. in Geographic Information Science (GIS) from University of Arizona in 2023.  While obtaining her bachelor’s degree, Desiray worked with My NASA Data as an intern through NASA’s Internship Program.