• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2022

• University of California, Santa Cruz, B.A. Feminist Studies (concentration: Law, Politics, & Social Change), '13

• Ohlone College, A.S. Engineering, ‘22

• Host Institution: Virgin Orbit

• Executive Mentor: Erika Wagner

• Brookie Mentor: Leslie Baker Lyon

Tinise Lee is a queer, first-generation, gender bender of color and non-traditional Mechanical Engineering student at Ohlone (Community) College, located on unceded Muwekma Ohlone land. Their mission: develop solutions – technical and sociological – to collectively build a more dynamic and just paradigm.

Tinise’s former training was Feminist Studies, concentrating in Law, Politics, and Social Change at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), receiving their B.A. in 2013. To combat intersectional racial injustice, Tinise dedicated several years to the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) movement at UCSC via grassroots organizing and institutional collaboration to design program structure/frameworks. In 2014, after 40+ years of struggle, CRES became an official major – and, later, a department in 2021. In addition to CRES, Tinise engaged with other organizations, including Engaging Education (retention and outreach for BIPOC students) and Rainbow Theatre (multicultural theatre arts troupe addressing issues affecting marginalized communities) as a performer, sound/lighting technician, and technical director.

In 2014, they took Dr. Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua’s Introduction to Engineering at Ohlone, where they designed and built a water distillation prototype to address unjust access to clean water and electronics recycling. This course sparked Tinise’s dream of bridging engineering and social change. Tinise returned to school to pursue engineering but dropped out shortly after due to personal difficulties. Over the years, they worked in various fields, including a nonprofit advocating for/supporting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After reconnecting with Dr. Ekeng-Itua, an impactful visit at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, and finding hope and inspiration upon reading Octavia E. Butler’s books, Tinise’s dream reignited. In 2018, they returned to school – again – to pursue aerospace via mechanical engineering.

Since returning, Tinise served various positions for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Ohlone College, including Secretary, Inter-Club Council Representative, and President. In 2019, Tinise became a NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar, working on the design and build of a mock Mars rover in a rover competition at Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX). There, Tinise received a Most Valuable Player Award and was invited to return to mentor the 2020 student cohort. During the thick of the pandemic, Tinise interned with Evolve Manufacturing, co-designing and co-building several iterations of a COVID-19 test tube digital counter prototype to increase manufacturing efficiency of test kits. Tinise was involved with the prototype’s engineering lifecycle from start to finish, which provided deeper understanding of processes at-large while affirming their particular enjoyment for designing/building. They were hired back as a Manufacturing/Quality Engineering Apprentice for fall 2020. In 2021, Tinise was selected to join the national Out for Undergrad Engineering Conference, connecting with other LGBTQIA+ engineering students and industry professionals. Tinise is on track to obtain their A.S. in Engineering and transfer to a university in fall ‘22 to complete their B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

Tinise is honored to be a 2022 Brooke Owens Fellow and is excited to work with Virgin Orbit as a Propulsion Engineering Intern. Tinise will draw from their unique experiences to support the design and development of the Newton rocket engines for the LauncherOne system, participating in the revolution of small-satellite launch services and Virgin Orbit’s mission to open space for everyone. For Tinise, engaging in engineering in aerospace means pushing boundaries to decolonize space exploration and revive, repair, and restore our sacred connection with each other – to acknowledge the oppressive systems we may have been/are a part of, work through the entanglement, and build both technical and sociological solutions that enable a more holistic society to manifest, within Earth and beyond.