Rita Owens, Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association (GESTA/IFPTE Local 29)

Rita Owens serves as an Area Vice President of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association (GESTA/IFPTE Local 29). She has been a member of GESTA for over 10 years. Rita joined GESTA when she needed help resolving an issue in the workplace. 

Rita is interested in helping improve our workplace and breaking down all the barriers for employees to have more productivity. She is an electrical engineer with NASA in the Electrical Systems Branch (Code 565). She has been involved in a variety of engineering projects such as flight hardware designs, requirements & verification documentations, MBSE modeling, IRADs, software development, etc. at Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) since 1993 and obtained a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1999. Rita also is serving as a co-chair of the Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group (EAERG) since last year. She is also part of the GSFC DEIA Implementation Team. She was also the chair of Advisory Committee (EAAC) in 2008-2010. She spearheaded the renaming of the committee to EAAC, attended meetings with the GSFC Center Director and councils, and arranged events to increase disability awareness. Rita also participated in various committees at GSFC such as Standing Awards Committee, GSFC Diversity Dialogue, AETD Diversity Focus Group, EO Council, Diversity Council, Lactation program (Supermom) and People with Disabilities Advisory Committee (Vice-Chair).