Sian Proctor, a geoscience professor for more than 20 years at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, and current Mentor-Connect mentee, has been selected for Inspiration4. The three-day mission aboard a SpaceX rocket this autumn will be the first by an all-civilian crew of four.
Proctor’s extraordinary resume of professional development and scientific explorations includes participating in Integrated Geospatial Education and Technology Training (iGETT), an Advanced Technological Education project funded in 2007 and 2012 by the National Science Foundation that was led by Osa Brand. Brand is currently a Mentor-Connect mentor and senior member of Mentor-Connect’s leadership team. Mentor-Connect is an ATE project led by Florence-Darlington Technical College in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges.
Brand remembers Proctor from iGETT as “extremely capable, [She] showed very strong leadership qualities and was the kind of person who would brighten up a room as soon as she walked in.”
Ann Johnson, who was a co-principal investigator of iGETT and is now mentoring South Mountain Community College’s Mentor-Connect team, said Proctor was vying to become a NASA astronaut around the time that she was participating in iGETT. Proctor made it to NASA’s finalist round in 2009.
“It’s wonderful that it’s a lifelong dream come true,” of Proctor’s selection by Inspiration4.