Monica Vidaurri

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Monica moved up to Washington, D.C. in January of 2017, where she has since worked for Congress, the American Chemical Society, the non-profit sector, the White House, and now NASA. Bridging the gap between science and policy – and ultimately turning STEM into STEAM – has been a major focus of her career. The other is diversity and inclusion, and she works to make both Washington politics and STEM as inclusive as possible. Monica’s science focuses are in astrobiology and planetary protection, while her policy focuses are in space and science policy, bioethics, and science communication. A classic jack-of-all-trades, Monica loves big-picture analyses, managing multi-level problems with collaboration, and solving future problems before they happen. Monica is also an avid musician, and enjoys teaching marching band and listening to many kinds of music.