Our Executive Mentors

Tracy Drain

Tracy Drain is a Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. She is currently the Lead Flight Systems Engineer for the Europa Clipper mission. 

Tracy received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Kentucky and a Master’s Degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, both in the field of Mechanical Engineering. As an undergrad at UofK, she completed four rotations as an engineering co-op at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. After graduating from Georgia Tech in 2000, she officially joined the NASA family as a full-time employee at JPL.

In her 20 years at the lab, Tracy has been involved in the development, testing and/or operation of five missions: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (a science and relay orbiter at Mars), Kepler (a space-based observatory searching for Exoplanets), Juno (an orbiter at Jupiter), Psyche (a mission to study an asteroid of the same name) and now Europa Clipper (a mission to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa). Her roles on these projects have included Transition Phase Lead and Lead Systems Engineer in operations for MRO, the Mission Readiness Lead for Kepler, Deputy Chief Engineer in operations for Juno, Deputy Project Systems Engineer for Psyche and Lead Flight Systems Engineer for Europa Clipper. In addition to her roles on flight projects, Tracy has also served as the Technical Group Supervisor for the Flight System Systems Engineering group within the Flight Systems Engineering, Integration and Test section. 

Tracy is passionate about space exploration and STEM fields in general and loves taking every opportunity to share her enthusiasm with students and people of all ages. In addition to regularly giving talks to students and the general public in a variety of venues, she is currently on the planning committee for the National Academy of Science’s “Science and Entertainment Exchange” and serves on the Advisory Board for the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative.