Astronaut Scholar, Theresa Kowalkowski, was recently named Lead of the Mission Design Chair for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Advanced Projects Design Team, or Team X. This concurrent engineering design team is responsible for evaluating mission concepts for JPL and non-JPL missions flying to the Moon, Mars and beyond. As an undergraduate, she gained experience through a NASA co-op program and moved on to the Mars Exploration Rover program after receiving her Master’s degree. Theresa received the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s award from 1998–2000 while at Purdue University.