Diana Trujillo

She has led engineering teams responsible for the Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, including the Perseverance robotic arm, holding roles from telecom systems engineer to Mission Lead. Some recent reporting (2025) also describes her serving as a NASA Flight Director for human spaceflight missions at Johnson Space Center — both roles are real NASA positions she has held; this profile focuses on her long-documented Mars rover engineering work at JPL.

Born and raised in Colombia, she immigrated to the United States at 17 with limited English, working as a housecleaner while attending community college before transferring into aerospace engineering. She became the first Hispanic immigrant woman admitted to the NASA Academy.

Started at Miami Dade College; studied aerospace engineering at the University of Florida; B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park (2007)

She began at a community college, not a famous university — the same on-ramp many Hamptonian AeroPuente students have available to them, and it led all the way to leading engineering on a Mars rover.

Ingeniera aeroespacial de la NASA que ha liderado equipos de ingeniería de los rovers de Marte, desde llegar a EE.UU. a los 17 años hablando poco inglés hasta dirigir misiones en el JPL.

• Mars Perseverance Team Members to Be Recognized at Hispanic Heritage Awards — NASA JPL
• Diana Trujillo — Wikipedia (cross-checked)
• Diana Trujillo — Perseverance Flight Director — Aspen Ideas Festival