Kathleen M. Connell

Kathleen Connell is the Principal of the Connell Whittaker Group, LLC, is a woman owned and operated private and public sector consulting firm dedicated to “space solutions of benefit to humanity”. The Connell Whittaker Group LLC is a member of the Alliance for Commercial Enterprises in Space (ACES), a partnering network engaged with the NASA/ARC Portal, and dedicated to creating a “friendly front door” for commercial space at NASA. While Adjunct Faculty and Project Director at San Jose State University, in the College of Social Sciences, Kathleen became the Principal Investigator researching the societal impacts of Apollo in collaboration with Co-Investigator and award winning videographer Michael Danty. Kathleen has been honored to work with many other innovative space professionals in the founding or co-creation of innovative organizations and programs in the space arena. Most recently, she proposed the creation of a US based Center for Humanity and Space Exploration (CHASE) a global collaborative center for the study, development, and communications of space-related activities of benefit to humanity. NewSpace folks may recall that Kathleen is a founding member and the first Policy Director of the Aerospace States Association, which was the first advocate for state engagement in national space policy, and a home for many of the early spaceport visionaries. She has also been a founding group member of multiple NASA initiatives, including the Astrobiology program. Kathleen has also been a proponent for genomic research in space, and bio-info-nano fusion while Associate Director of the Research Institute of Advanced Computer Science, a division of USRA. Highlights of NASA mission activities include: Group member, Return to Flight, of the first Shuttle flight and landing, post-Challenger Accident; Acquisition of imaging capability for the Comet Haley Encounter after the loss of Haley's payload on Challenger; and on site manager and liaison with the Air Force for the first Leonids Comet encounter, deployed from Okinawa, Japan. In 2002, she was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal, one of the highest awards granted to citizens by NASA and the United States, "For outstanding leadership in the development of broad community, state and national support of NASA's Life Sciences and Astrobiology Program." In 1994, Connell was selected as an Honorary Colonel by the Department of Defense and the Governor of New Mexico. Prior to working with NASA, Kathleen was a community-based economic development Director, in partnership with the California Governor's Office of Special Projects. She founded and enabled successful small businesses, high-rise housing, and planning efforts in conjunction with the local neighborhood and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. She holds a B.A. in Development Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A in Human and Organizational Systems, Fielding Graduate University.