A lifelong baseball fan, Catherine Staggs set out together with her household to go to all 30 Main League Baseball stadiums throughout the USA. That love of the sport finally led them to settle in Houston about eight years in the past – a selection that helped lead Staggs to NASA’s Johnson Area Heart, the place she is a contracting officer for the company’s Business Lunar Payload Providers (CLPS) initiative. Via CLPS, she helps handle the contracts with industrial corporations delivering science and expertise to the Moon. These efforts assist NASA’s Artemis marketing campaign and lay the groundwork for steady human presence on the lunar floor.
She joined NASA as a civil servant in 2018, however Staggs’ profession within the federal authorities stretches again to her school days. She accomplished an accounting co-op with the Division of Protection as a scholar at Clemson College in Clemson, South Carolina, and secured a full-time accounting place with the company following her commencement. She transitioned to a enterprise monetary supervisor place supporting U.S. Marine Corps tasks whereas incomes an MBA from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. “That place is the place I began to dabble in contracting,” she mentioned.
Staggs moved to Texas in 2014 to be nearer to her boyfriend – now husband – who was stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen. She was employed as a contract compliance supervisor for a small, Killeen-based enterprise that specialised in authorities contracts, formally launching her profession in contracting. When Staggs’ husband retired from the Military, the couple determined to maneuver to Houston as a result of they liked to observe the Houston Astros play ball. Staggs continued working for the contracting firm from her new dwelling however missed assembly new individuals and collaborating with colleagues in individual.
“I utilized for a contract specialist job with NASA to get again into the workplace, and the remaining is historical past,” she mentioned.
Her present function at Johnson includes managing the executive contract capabilities for the 13 base contracts that assist CLPS, that are valued at $2.6 billion. She can be the contracting officer for Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission-3 and helps to coach and develop up-and-coming contract specialists. “I like to see the event every contract specialist has over their profession,” she mentioned. “My first Pathways intern is now working full-time for NASA as a contract specialist, and they’re working to grow to be a restricted warrant contracting officer.”
Her coaching expertise supplies priceless perspective on new staff members. “Everybody begins on the backside, not figuring out what they don’t know,” she mentioned. “All of us have a starting, and we have to do not forget that as we welcome new staff.”
Staggs mentioned that navigating change has at occasions been troublesome in her profession, however she strives to stay versatile and open to adjusting work and life to satisfy the wants of the mission. “My time at NASA has helped develop my management abilities by means of confidence in myself and my staff,” she mentioned.
She seems to be ahead to mentoring the Artemis Era and sharing her contracting information with new staff members. She additionally anticipates crossing extra baseball stadiums off her household’s checklist this summer time.