Lisa Tempo is aware of a marathon when she sees one. An avid runner, she has participated in 5 marathons and greater than 50 half marathons. Although she prefers to maneuver rapidly, she additionally is aware of the worth of taking her time. “I remedy most of my issues whereas working – or notice these issues aren’t price worrying about,” she mentioned.
She has realized to take the same method to her work at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston. “Earlier in my profession, I raced to get issues finished and felt the necessity to do as a lot as doable by myself,” she mentioned. “Over time, I’ve realized to belief my workforce and pause to present others a chance to contribute. There are occasions when fast motion is required, however it’s usually a marathon, not a dash.”
Tempo is chief of the Exploration Growth Integration Division throughout the Exploration Architecture, Integration, and Science Directorate at Johnson. In that function, she leads a workforce of roughly 120 civil servants and contractors in offering mission-level system engineering and integration providers that deliver completely different structure parts collectively to realize the company’s objectives. At present that workforce helps Artemis missions, NASA’s Business Lunar Payload Providers initiative and different areas as wanted.
“The Artemis missions come collectively via a number of packages and initiatives,” Tempo defined. “We sew them collectively to make sure the end-to-end mission meets its supposed necessities. That features verifying these necessities earlier than flight and guaranteeing agreements between packages are honored and conflicts resolved.” The division additionally manages mission-level overview and flight readiness processes from planning via execution, as much as the ultimate certification of flight readiness.
Main the division via the planning, launch, and touchdown of Artemis I used to be a profession spotlight for Tempo, although she feels lucky to have labored on many nice initiatives throughout her time with NASA. “My coolest and most rewarding mission concerned designing and deploying an orbital particles monitoring telescope on Ascension Island about 10 years in the past,” she mentioned. “The engineers, scientists, and army personnel I set to work and journey with on that stunning island is hard to high!”
Tempo says luck and nice timing led her to NASA. Engineering jobs had been plentiful when she graduated from Virginia Tech in 2000, and she or he rapidly obtained a suggestion from Lockheed Martin to change into a facility engineer in Johnson’s Astromaterials Analysis and Exploration Science Division, or ARES. “I believed working within the constructing the place they maintain the Moon rocks could be cool – and it was! Twenty-five years later, I’m nonetheless right here,” Tempo mentioned.
Throughout that point, she has realized so much about problem-solving and workforce constructing. “I usually discover that after we disagree over the ‘proper’ technique to do one thing, there is no such thing as a one proper reply – it simply depends upon your perspective,” she mentioned. “I take the time to take heed to individuals, perceive their aspect, and construct relationships to seek out frequent floor.”
She additionally emphasizes the significance of attending to know your colleagues. “Relationships are all the pieces,” she mentioned. “They make the work a lot extra significant. I carry that lesson over to my private life and worth my time with household and associates outdoors of labor.”
Investing time in relationships has given Tempo one other sudden talent – that of matchmaker. “I’m accountable for establishing 5 {couples} who are actually married, and have six children between them,” she mentioned, including that she knew one couple from Johnson.
She hopes that sturdy relationships switch to the Artemis Technology. “I hope to go on a robust NASA model and the household tradition that I’ve been lucky to have, working right here for the final 25 years.”