Lynn Cline: Career Advancement
Lynn Cline recounts how her background as a French major in college led to a career that has included serving as lead U.S. negotiator for the International Space Station and Deputy Associate Administrator of Space Operations.
(Transcript) Well I came in – actually came in just for what was supposed to be a three month assignment. I was a French Language major at East Carolina University and the chairman of the Language Department called and asked if I would like to go and work at NASA because they had a co-op opening in the International Affairs Office. So I came in for three months and bottom line is I got so fascinated with the work I decided to completely reorient my career and I wanted to come back to NASA a second time. So I went back to school and crammed in every last course I could so that I could come back for a second co-op term and when I finished that co-op term I converted to full-time /permanent. So I turned that three-month assignment into what’s now a thirty-five-year career.
And along the way, I guess the main lesson I learned is that I didn’t really map out my career very well myself because whatever job I thought was my next logical move turned out to be wrong. Mostly I got recruited by management or offered an opportunity to go in a different direction that I personally hadn’t been considering. For example, I was working on space and Earth science and was very happy doing that negotiating agreements and I got a new boss who came in and said Lynn, I’m putting you in charge of our new relationship with Russia and I want you to lead the negotiations for the Space Station Program. I was ready to — actually had applied to become our NASA European rep in Paris, which for many years was my dream job, and my boss came and asked me to withdraw my application and please become his deputy instead in charge of external relations.
Related Resources
-
Houston, we had a problem…and we learned from it!Space is hard. Inevitably, problems may occur. We can all learn valuable lessons from past events to ensure the safety and success of current and future programs. Enjoy reading and learning from a selection of such events. This booklet produced by the Johnson Space Center Knowledge Management Office contains numerous lesson learned from NASA missions and projects.
-
Apollo 1-Challenger-ColumbiaEvery year as we get back in the saddle, our Remembrance Day signals us to think back to the tragic events of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia as well as the context surrounding them. We’re accountable for learning from not just what went wrong, but how we recovered. As an example, read these rules recorded by Wayne Hale, former NASA Flight Director and Space Shuttle Program Manager. By actually applying such lessons from the past to your current work, our actions can honor our lost crews beyond silent reflection.
-
Shuttle Software AnomalyCase Study–A few minutes after the Shuttle Endeavour reached orbit for STS-126 on Nov. 14, 2008, mission control noticed that the shuttle did not automatically transfer two communications processes from launch to orbit configuration. Primary communications continued to use S-band frequencies after they should have transferred to the more powerful Ku-band. The link between the shuttle and its payload — the Payload Signal Processor (PSP)–remained configured for a radio link rather than switching.
