National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (Space Grant) Acting Manager and Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Manager, Education Office, NASA Headquarters
Joeletta Patrick is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, where she attended North Carolina A&T State University and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Upon graduation, she moved to Houston, Texas, and began her career in the NASA family at Johnson Space Center. She worked as a flight controller for the International Space Station and as an engineer doing time-phased power analysis. Patrick returned to the Mission Operations Directorate and became a civil servant in 2004 as a flight controller in the Electrical Power System group.
Patrick’s career has been marked by positions of leadership, new challenges and steadily increasing responsibility. In 2010, after working as a certified flight controller, she served as the project manager of Johnson’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP). In 2011, she was selected to serve at NASA Headquarters as a MUREP Education Fellow in Washington, D.C., which led her to be selected as the agency manager for MUREP in 2013. In 2016, Patrick was selected to be a Senior Fellow at the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities where she worked on building the capacity of the nation’s HBCUs. In January 2017, Patrick returned to her home agency, NASA, to resume her position as the MUREP manager.
Patrick has worked with internal and external organizations, institutions, federal agencies, and the community through various NASA Office of Education assignments. Her work has reflected her commitment to leveraging university relationships and investments, growing the number of diverse students prepared to work in STEM-based fields, supporting STEM initiatives, and serving as a spokesperson for NASA’s commitment to STEM.
Patrick holds a Master of Business Administration from University of Maryland University College and is currently a doctoral student at UMUC. She enjoys volunteering in the community, serving in social and professional organizations, and baking. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
