I met Rachel Barry last year when I went to the Kennedy Space Center to learn about NASA and see a launch as part of NASA Social. Rachel (who you may know as Rachel Hobson) isn't a scientist or engineer, but her work at NASA for the International Space Station Science Office as the Communications Managing Editor. Her job is to make sure people know about the cool science happening on the ISS, and how it can help people get to Mars and help us here on Earth. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and I was curious to know more about her work.
It turns out that making sure people know what interesting and innovative work is happening on the ISS is Rachel's job, but it hasn't always been. She started her career teaching web design and journalism to high school students before leaving to stay home with her kids. Rachel built a writing career on her love of crafting and community building by writing a blog. Blogging led to magazine work, which led to Rachel pitching stories that would let her cover NASA mission launches, tapping into her lifelong love of space. Reporting on NASA led Rachel to her current role, which lets her combine her love of learning, communication, and community. Rachel tells us that "the core of who I am is a communicator. Curiosity and communication are basically the things that rule my life."
Rachel Barry's parents taught her to "be flexible and be open." From teaching web design, to parlaying her love of crafting into a magazine job, Rachel says that, "Curiosity and communication are basically the things that rule my life." Today, she uses those skills to let people know about all the awesome scientific work being done on the International Space Station.
