NASA Tech Talks: NASA Education Highlights

Name: NASA Tech Talks: NASA Education Highlights
Start: 2026-06-25T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-06-25T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Ion

The event has passed

Category: Aerospace, Founders & Startups, General Community

Free

Past Event

WHEN

Thursday

June 25, 2026

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm CDT

WHERE

Ion

4201 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002 + Google Map

what

We want HOU! Join us to discover NASA’s toughest tech challenges—and apply your skills and ex-pertise to solve them.This month we’re going to focus on educational opportunities offered by NASA for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, plus partnership opportunities for colleges and universities!Information booths and activities for younger students will be available starting at 5pm, so please join us to learn more about the Education opportunities offered by NASA and how you can get in-volved!Grownups – please join us after the talk for drinks and networking at Second Draught!

About the Speakers

A Louisiana native, Dr. Elicia “Dynae” Fullwood was the valedictorian of her senior high school class. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Houston main campus in Houston, Texas and a Master of Education degree with specialties in Secondary Education and Education Administration from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. She earned an Education Specialist degree from Nova Southeastern University in Miami, FL while studying Instructional Technology and Distance Education. She earned a Doctoral degree in Education from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She holds a Principal certificate for K-12 School Administration in the state of Texas, an Online Teaching certificate, and a Classroom Teacher certificate for Secondary Biology in Texas.

Dynae is currently working at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX where she is the Team Lead for the Office of STEM Engagement, the organization responsible for STEM education and outreach in support of NASA’s missions. Prior to this, Dr. Fullwood led national K12 STEM Education activities related to NASA’s Artemis program. Dr. Fullwood worked as an Education Specialist with NASA’s Teaching from Space Office. Her career also lends experience as an Aerospace Education Specialist at NASA Headquarters, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Langley Research Center. Earlier on, she taught high school science in the Houston Independent School District of Houston, Texas at James Madison High School and the School for Meteorology and Space Science.

Dr. Fullwood completed the 2011 Shamrock Marathon and the 2006 Honolulu Marathon. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Her personal hobbies include singing, telling funny stories, crocheting, learning French and being the best at taking care of her school-aged son, golden-aged parents, and the cutest Yorkshire terrier on planet Earth.

Keya T. Briscoe is the Director of JSC University Engagements within NASA’s University Partnerships & Collaboration Office. With over 20 years of professional experience, Keya brings deep expertise in program management, stakeholder engagement, and strategic relationship building across academic, government, and technical communities. Keya plays a pivotal role in strengthening academic partnerships and supporting initiatives that connect leading academic talent with NASA’s mission needs. Known for a collaborative, people‑centered approach, Keya is committed to creating pathways that expand opportunity, elevate institutional partnerships, and enhance NASA’s broader engagement strategy. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Keya earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Loyola University Maryland and a Master’s degree in Human Resources Development from Towson University.

Jennifer Scott Williams is the Deputy Director of the Business Development and Technology Integration Office (BDTI) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), where she helps lead strategic planning, workforce oversight, and integration of technical, mission support, and communications activities across key areas including open innovation, partnership formulation, technology integration, technology transfer, and business integration. Born in Oklahoma and raised as an Air Force dependent, Jennifer is a dual graduate of Spelman College and Georgia Tech with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering. She began her NASA career as a Space Shuttle INCO flight controller, earning eight certifications and supporting 24 missions. She later completed a Master of Electrical Engineering at the University of Houston and went on to serve in a variety of leadership roles, including managing MUREP programs in the JSC Office of Education, leading communications operations for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Starliner, and overseeing research portfolios and payload integration for the International Space Station (ISS) Program. Selected as Branch Chief of the Applications Client Support Office in 2020, she led teams enabling technology demonstrations, STEM initiatives, commercial payloads, and external payload operations aboard the ISS. Most recently, she served a year-long detail as Technical Assistant for Integration supporting Center Director Vanessa Wyche. Today, she continues advancing human exploration through capability development, technology integration, and collaborative innovation with both traditional and emerging space partners.

Glenn Johnson has 22 years of experience at Johnson Space Center training astronauts for the Space Shuttle and the ISS and helping develop equipment for the space program. Most of this training and equipment development has been in relation to habitability for the crew–sleep quarters, food prep, cleaning, toilet. He is currently working in the HUNCH (High schools students United with NASA to Create Hardware) program for the Design and Prototype program where he gets high school students to design and build equipment for the space program as we move to returning to the moon and prepare for missions to Mars. Before working for the space program he was a high school physics teacher and an engineer on a high-speed passenger project.

Alli Westover is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 1996. After graduation started working at NASA as an integration engineer for life science research on the Space Shuttle and for the astronauts aboard the MIR (Russian Space Station). Performed biomedical flight readiness and training of many astronauts while working in the Cardiovascular Lab. When my children, who are now 27 and 24, were little I left NASA for a little bit and wrote a children’s book, called ‘My Daddy Works at NASA’. I would go into the schools and do small science experiments with the students. I then went and taught Engineering Design at a local high-school and started working on NASA HUNCH projects in my class. After 5 years, I joined the NASA team again and started working for the NASA HUNCH (High-school students United with NASA to Create Hardware) program. I began the NASA HUNCH Culinary and Nutrition Science Program 11 years ago and this program has grown by leaps and bounds. The NASA Program and the Astronauts are loving the unique foods that the students are making. I have also been our certification engineer for all of our hardware that flies to the ISS. In 2022 I started a new program for Health and Biomedical Engineering projects. This program is taking real problems that our NASA flight surgeons and engineers are facing with our future endeavors to the moon and beyond. I have been with the NASA HUNCH program now for 13 years.

Donald M. Bennett has more than 38 years of experience as an educator in Industrial Technology. Born in East Texas, he graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1981 before building a career at the intersection of classroom instruction and real-world engineering.

Beginning in 2004, Mr. Bennett began participation in NASA’s HUNCH program which engages high school students in building, designing, and building hardware for the International Space Station with his students creating training UOP’s.

He joined the NASA HUNCH team as Flight Configuration Manager in 2019, overseeing student-designed projects with CAD prototypes and the creation of drawings needed for the manufacture of hardware. This included on-orbit projects such as the Galley Table Systems, Tape Dispenser, EVA tools, HUNCH Utility Bracket, an ARISS Fan Cover, and the Ball Clamp monopod.

Donald now brings this blend of educational leadership and NASA HUNCH program experience to engineering design programs to teachers and students in the Flight Configuration program.

Montgomery B. Goforth has more than 40 years of experience as both Engineer and Manager in a variety of highly technical space and defense-related efforts. After working for a small defense contractor specializing in anti-submarine warfare, he joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1990. He has held leadership positions in multiple JSC Directorates and Program Offices. In his previous role as Assistant Director of the JSC Engineering Directorate, he established a framework to better focus Engineering’s efforts towards Human Spaceflight technology and systems development consistent with JSC and Agency goals for exploration. Mr. Goforth is now serving as Acting Director of the Business Development & Technology Integration Office at JSC, and as the JSC Chief Technologist. In these capacities he will be helping to expand the Houston Aerospace Community through the identification of opportunities to develop space/terrestrial technologies of interest to JSC and Human Space Exploration. Mr. Goforth was born in East Texas, raised in Southern California and Arizona, and graduated from Rice University (BSME 1982, MSME 1987).

About NASA Tech Talks

In these presentations, occurring the fourth Thursdays of the month, Mr. Montgomery Goforth and other aerospace subject matter experts will discuss the technology development challenges faced by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the surrounding Aerospace community in our ongoing efforts as the hub of human spaceflight. Presentations will focus on the ways in which these challenges, and the associated opportunities, can be leveraged by Houston’s innovation community. We will continue to identify potential space/terrestrial technologies of interest to Human Spaceflight. Past NASA Tech Talks have included topics such as:

From Space to Startup: Leveraging NASA Technology and Innovation to Propel Your Growing Enterprise
Disruptive Filter Technology for Spacecraft Water Treatment: The New Promise of Graphene
Lunar dust capture using novel multiplexed inertial filter
Lunar Passive Fuel Cell Technologies:
Microbes in Space
Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) Systems
Virtual/Augmented Reality in Human Spaceflight Training & Execution
Human Health & Performance / Human Systems Research
NASA Intellectual Property suitable for commercialization by small/start-up companies
Orion’s parachutes and risk identification and mitigation strategies
Leveraging Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for ultra-long-lived wireless sensors

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NASA Tech Talks: NASA Education Highlights

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NASA Tech Talks: NASA Education Highlights

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Thursday

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CONTACT

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