Dr. Okolo is an aerospace engineering researcher in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center, conducting research and leading cross-functional teams in aerospace vehicle controls and systems health monitoring. In a nutshell, she works at the NASA center in Silicon Valley, making things fly safer and more efficiently.
Her research experiences include the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where she worked on aircraft formation flight for fuel savings. Specifically, she implemented unconventional trim/control mechanisms to increase the fuel savings obtained for trail aircraft in formation flight. Her research culminated in flight tests by the U.S. Air Force for which fuel savings were achieved. She also worked at the Advanced Development Programs of Lockheed Martin (Skunkworks), implementing performance optimizing control for the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Joint Strike Fighter F-35C aircraft.
As an undergraduate aerospace student, Dr. Okolo interned at Lockheed Martin on the Orion spacecraft, NASA’s crew exploration vehicle that will facilitate human exploration beyond low earth orbit. She was also an undergraduate research assistant in flight dynamics and controls, which motivated her research interests to pursue a Ph.D. after graduating with her Honors B.Sc. in aerospace engineering.
At 26 years old, she became the first black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her graduate studies were recognized and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, Zonta International through the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Texas Space Grant Consortium. She also received a Resolution of Commendation from the Tarrant County Court of Texas and an award for excellence in research by the Women Of Color in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics).
At NASA, Dr. Okolo has been honored with the 2021 NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, the 2020 NASA Ames Award for Researcher/Scientist, and the 2019 NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award, the first woman to receive the Ames Early Career Researcher Award. She is also the recipient of the 2019 U.T. Arlington Distinguished Recent Graduate Award, the 2019 Women In Aerospace Award for Initiative, Inspiration & Impact, and the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Most Promising Engineer in U.S. Government.
An avid supporter of changing the narrative of underrepresentation in STEM, particularly for young girls, career women, and people of color, she served as the NASA Ames Special Emphasis Programs Manager for women, ensuring the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women. Her initiatives include creating nursing rooms for mothers to ease their transition back to work and analyzing job language usage in position descriptions to remove gendered language biases that reduce female applicants. In recognition of her work in enabling diversity, inclusion, and equity, she was honored with the NASA Ames Honor Award for diversity and equal opportunity.
In 2021, Dr. Okolo was named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent, In support of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. She has given multiple keynotes on a global scale, served on various speaker panels, and provides diversity and inclusion tools for individuals and organizations in STEM to demonstrate that truly, everything is for everyone.