DATT Summit® 2018

Nicole Dawkins

NASA KSC Engineering


Nicole Dawkins is a Florida native with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of North Florida. She began her career in aerospace at Kennedy Space Center as an instrumentation engineer for United Space Alliance in 2003, where she performed ground testing and launch support for Space Shuttle Discovery. She continued working in sensors and data acquisition systems as a NASA instrumentation lead up until the end of the Shuttle Program in 2011. Following the last shuttle mission, Nicole began working as an assistant to the Chief Engineer for the Commercial Crew Program. One of her first tasks was to lead an engineering training program titled, ‘Rocket University’. Nicole led small teams of engineers in the concept, design, fabrication, and test of multiple payloads sized to fly on scientific balloons across Florida. She also led the development of two larger balloon payloads that flew on high altitude weather balloons across New Mexico and Antarctica in collaboration with NASA’s Balloon Program Office. Her successes and lessons learned in Rocket University helped her to gain valuable knowledge in systems engineering and technical integration. She continues to apply that knowledge in support of the Commercial Crew Program, with the goal of returning humans to the International Space Station and beyond.

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