• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2022

• University of Kentucky, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, ‘22

• Host Institution: Zipline

• Executive Mentor: Scott Parazynski

• Brookie Mentor: Shreya Udupa

Anna is a senior studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. She found a passion for engineering and a community of mentors in her freshman year working on the UK Solar Car Team. Throughout her early undergraduate career, she worked as a Prototyping Guide at UK's Innovation Center to help teach incoming students how to use shop tools and 3D printers. Together with group work in classes, this opened her eyes to the skill discrepancies of freshman entering the engineering college due to the inequalities in their high school opportunities. She led a training at the Innovation Center for high school girls interested in engineering, and this passion for offering equal opportunity to learn about STEM early in school continues to present day.

She completed two internships at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, learning best practices for human-facing device design and testing. This aligned with her values of engineering technology to help humanity but she wanted to branch out before graduating to understand where she could find the best fit. She found Space Tango, an aerospace startup in Lexington Kentucky and interned there for two terms. This ignited a passion for aerospace and its ability to empower scientists to perform research in microgravity. With help from fellow intern Annaliza Perez-Torres, she completed research into a novel bioreactor design which led to her presentation of a poster at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. At Space Tango, she also learned aerospace's ability to inspire young students and worked with Michelle Lucas under Danielle Rosales's mentorship to coordinate volunteers for a Higher Orbits: Go for Launch! camp for high school students.

As a 2022 Brooke Owens Fellow, Anna will be interning with Zipline in San Francisco, CA. She is excited to work with a previous Brookie and a diverse team to combine her interests in aerospace, medicine, and helping people.
In the future, Anna plans to continue working in the aerospace industry, using her design skills to enable new and exciting missions. She is passionate about using her privilege to continue mentoring the next generation of amazing women and underrepresented groups in STEM, as well as advocating for systemic change.
In her free time, Anna loves rock climbing, hiking, and playing D&D with friends, or spending a night in to knit cute nerdy socks.