Our Executive Mentors

L. Diana Trujillo

Diana Trujillo is a Flight Director at NASA's Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX. As the 108th Flight Director in NASA's history -- and the first born in a Spanish-speaking country -- Trujillo is one of a small cadre who lead the Mission Control Center during all of NASA's human spaceflight missions, including ongoing operations of the International Space Station, the Artemis missions returning humans to the Moon and onward to Mars, and key flights of the Dragon, Cygnus, and Starliner orbital vehicles.

Prior to her current position, Trujillo played a key role in three landmark robotic missions to Mars: Curiosity and Perseverance, the most advanced Mars rovers ever built; and Ingenuity, the first helicopter to fly on another planet. Over the course of fourteen years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she held a number of leadership roles on those missions, including Flight Director, Mission Lead, Deputy Project System Engineer, Deputy Team Chief of Engineering, and Robotic Arm Science phase lead.

Born and raised in Colombia, Trujillo immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 to pursue what she had been told was an impossible dream: working for NASA. She enrolled in English as a Second Language courses, working full-time to support her studies at Miami-Dade Community College, where her academic performance provided her the opportunity to earn a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, with additional studies at the University of Florida. While an undergrad, Trujillo also participated in the NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's premiere leadership training and research program for graduate and undergraduate students. 

After graduating, she worked at Orbital Sciences Corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman), helping the company win a $170 million contract from NASA to develop the Cygnus cargo spacecraft -- a vehicle that has now successfully conducted twenty missions to resupply the International Space Station.

In addition to her technical roles at JPL, Trujillo also created and hosted #JuntosPerseveramos, NASA’s first ever Spanish-language live broadcast of a major mission milestone. The #JuntosPerseveramos program was viewed live by millions in the United States, and was broadcast on television throughout Latin America.

Trujillo served on the Executive Team of the Brooke Owens Fellowship, and has been involved with the program since its inception. She has also served on the non-profit boards of the Brooke Owens Fellowship, the Columbia Memorial Space Center, and the Children’s Center at Caltech. She is also a passionate advocate for diversity in STEM, having pushed for more inclusion of the Latinx community in venues ranging from the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics to the educational program Plaza Sésamo (Sesame Street).

In 2017, Trujillo was named one of “Los 22 Más,” the 22 Colombians who best represent Colombia and all Colombians in the USA. In 2021, she was honored with the Cruz de Boyacá and named a Comendador of the Orden de Boyacá by the President of Colombia, the highest honors Colombia awards to civilians.

Trujillo lives near Houston, TX with her husband and their two children.