Tiera Guinn Fletcher decided she wanted to become an aerospace engineer at just eleven years old, after an outreach programme at her Georgia middle school introduced her to the fundamentals of the field, a moment that set the direction for the rest of her career.
Fletcher pursued her ambition relentlessly, applying to and being accepted at MIT, where she studied aerospace engineering while battling significant imposter syndrome as one of relatively few Black women in her programme, before graduating in 2017.
After graduating, Fletcher joined Boeing as a structural analysis engineer, working directly on NASA's Space Launch System — the most powerful rocket ever built — as one of the youngest members of the Engine Section Task team, responsible for the rocket's ascent-phase structural integrity.
Fletcher and her husband, fellow aerospace engineer Myron Fletcher, founded Rocket with the Fletchers, an outreach initiative introducing children from underrepresented backgrounds to aerospace engineering, extending her own middle-school inspiration to a new generation of young scientists.
- Lead structural engineer on NASA's Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built
- One of the youngest members of the Engine Section Task Leading team at Boeing
- Co-founded Rocket with the Fletchers, an aerospace outreach programme for underrepresented youth
- Led functional and physical configuration audits for the Artemis I mission launch
- Graduated from MIT with a degree in aerospace engineering
- Early exposure can determine a lifelong career path. A single middle-school programme set her entire aerospace career in motion at age eleven.
- Persistence overcomes imposter syndrome. She pushed through significant self-doubt at MIT to complete her degree and build a leading engineering career.
- Individual success can become collective opportunity. Her outreach programme extends the inspiration she received to underrepresented students today.
- Being young on a team does not limit responsibility. She held key structural responsibilities on the Space Launch System despite being among the youngest team members.