Sylvia Acevedo is an award-winning entrepreneur who has earned worldwide recognition for her work in addressing one of society’s most vexing challenges – universal access to education. Sylvia started her career as a rocket scientist at the Jet Propulsion Labs She holds a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Stanford University where she was one of the first Hispanics, male or female, to have earned a graduate engineering degree. Acevedo served on the White House Commission for Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She is the author of Path to The Stars (Clarion Books), the inspiring memoir for young readers about a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science. With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she worked on the Voyager mission’s flyby of Jupiter and its moons and the Solar Polar/Probe missions.
