Teresa Gomez concentrates her talents to organize astronaut selections, blood drives
2014-09-19
For Hispanic Heritage Month, Johnson Space Center is honoring a few employees whose character and culture have helped shaped them into the people they are today.
For Teresa Gomez, significant career change and opportunity came with a random glance at a personnel form while she worked as a young clerk at Randolph Air Force Base near her San Antonio home. Her eyes spotted a then unfamiliar acronym, NASA, emblazoned on a transfer document as the destination for one of Randolph’s soldiers.
That glance soon became a catalyst, one that would bring the newlywed to Houston and Johnson Space Center. Gomez, assistant manager of the Astronaut Selection Office, has played an essential role in the hiring of 211 astronauts during her 36 years and a dozen fiercely competitive selection rounds at JSC.
“When you think of NASA, you think of astronauts,” said Gomez, who is being recognized for her many contributions during Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. “It has been great to watch them as their careers progress and they get flights. It makes you feel good.”
“I enjoy every day meeting all the applicants who, even if they don't get selected, are doing all these great things in research, engineering and other unique stuff,” added Gomez, who plans to retire in December.
Duane Ross, who manages the Astronaut Selection Office, chose Gomez for his assistant as NASA began to select its third class of shuttle astronauts in 1984. They’ve been colleagues ever since, supporting NASA’s selection panels.
As the oldest of seven brother and sisters, Gomez possessed home-grown organizational skills that made her a natural when it came to contacting the candidates that had survived the early selection process to invite them to Houston for medical evaluations and face-to-face interviews. It was her duty to keep everyone on schedule and make often apprehensive finalists feel at home.
“I was always organizing, probably to the point of obsession,” Gomez said. “I’m kind of like a mother hen.”
Her efficiency and style won the confidence of the applicants—some of them contacted in such remote locales as the North and South poles or ships at sea with much sought after invitations to interview.
Though it was up to the selection boards to notify the men and women chosen to become the nation’s newest astronauts, some preferred to hear it from Gomez.
“One called me to say, ‘Teresa, I’ve just been called by the board and told I was selected as an astronaut. But I want to hear from you. I want to make sure it was not a joke,’” Gomez recalled. “I told Duane, ‘See, they only believe me.’”
Gomez is an Indiana native, where her father worked for a steel mill. For health reasons, he moved the family to San Antonio, where he found work as a security guard and chauffeur. As her mother joined the workforce as well, Gomez took on more responsibility in raising her siblings.
A high school student work program led Gomez to a position at Randolph. While a clerk in the personnel office, she enrolled in night school to study computer science. Though she did not graduate, Gomez gathered skills that would later help to automate the astronaut selection process.
Her marriage to Guadalupe, an Air Force reservist, brought her to Houston in 1979, when he was transferred to Ellington Field. NASA, once an intriguing term on a Randolph personnel form, took on a whole new meaning with her successful application for a position in Human Resources at JSC.
Managing a career and her own health issues—Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma—kept her from finishing her college degree. However, the couple’s son, Adam, recently graduated from college with a degree in computer science.
Gomez has used her organizational skills for another health-related mission. For the past 15 years, she’s served as coordinator for St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital blood drives at JSC and helped the center become one of the biggest donors.
“It’s something I am really passionate about given my history with lymphoma,” Gomez said.
In retirement, Gomez intends to pursue a new interest with her husband, who now works in the energy industry. They kayak together, exploring area bayous and waterfronts. She accompanies Guadalupe as he competes in some of the nation’s top marathons.
Then there is her lifelong enthusiasm for baking, especially Mexican and Polish cuisine, and the possibility of culinary courses.
Her chocolate bread and pecan-laced butter cookies, astronaut selection office favorites, will be retiring soon, too.
Mark Carreau
NASA Johnson Space Center
For Teresa Gomez, significant career change and opportunity came with a random glance at a personnel form while she worked as a young clerk at Randolph Air Force Base near her San Antonio home. Her eyes spotted a then unfamiliar acronym, NASA, emblazoned on a transfer document as the destination for one of Randolph’s soldiers.
That glance soon became a catalyst, one that would bring the newlywed to Houston and Johnson Space Center. Gomez, assistant manager of the Astronaut Selection Office, has played an essential role in the hiring of 211 astronauts during her 36 years and a dozen fiercely competitive selection rounds at JSC.
“When you think of NASA, you think of astronauts,” said Gomez, who is being recognized for her many contributions during Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. “It has been great to watch them as their careers progress and they get flights. It makes you feel good.”
“I enjoy every day meeting all the applicants who, even if they don't get selected, are doing all these great things in research, engineering and other unique stuff,” added Gomez, who plans to retire in December.
Duane Ross, who manages the Astronaut Selection Office, chose Gomez for his assistant as NASA began to select its third class of shuttle astronauts in 1984. They’ve been colleagues ever since, supporting NASA’s selection panels.
As the oldest of seven brother and sisters, Gomez possessed home-grown organizational skills that made her a natural when it came to contacting the candidates that had survived the early selection process to invite them to Houston for medical evaluations and face-to-face interviews. It was her duty to keep everyone on schedule and make often apprehensive finalists feel at home.
“I was always organizing, probably to the point of obsession,” Gomez said. “I’m kind of like a mother hen.”
Her efficiency and style won the confidence of the applicants—some of them contacted in such remote locales as the North and South poles or ships at sea with much sought after invitations to interview.
Though it was up to the selection boards to notify the men and women chosen to become the nation’s newest astronauts, some preferred to hear it from Gomez.
“One called me to say, ‘Teresa, I’ve just been called by the board and told I was selected as an astronaut. But I want to hear from you. I want to make sure it was not a joke,’” Gomez recalled. “I told Duane, ‘See, they only believe me.’”
Gomez is an Indiana native, where her father worked for a steel mill. For health reasons, he moved the family to San Antonio, where he found work as a security guard and chauffeur. As her mother joined the workforce as well, Gomez took on more responsibility in raising her siblings.
A high school student work program led Gomez to a position at Randolph. While a clerk in the personnel office, she enrolled in night school to study computer science. Though she did not graduate, Gomez gathered skills that would later help to automate the astronaut selection process.
Her marriage to Guadalupe, an Air Force reservist, brought her to Houston in 1979, when he was transferred to Ellington Field. NASA, once an intriguing term on a Randolph personnel form, took on a whole new meaning with her successful application for a position in Human Resources at JSC.
Managing a career and her own health issues—Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma—kept her from finishing her college degree. However, the couple’s son, Adam, recently graduated from college with a degree in computer science.
Gomez has used her organizational skills for another health-related mission. For the past 15 years, she’s served as coordinator for St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital blood drives at JSC and helped the center become one of the biggest donors.
“It’s something I am really passionate about given my history with lymphoma,” Gomez said.
In retirement, Gomez intends to pursue a new interest with her husband, who now works in the energy industry. They kayak together, exploring area bayous and waterfronts. She accompanies Guadalupe as he competes in some of the nation’s top marathons.
Then there is her lifelong enthusiasm for baking, especially Mexican and Polish cuisine, and the possibility of culinary courses.
Her chocolate bread and pecan-laced butter cookies, astronaut selection office favorites, will be retiring soon, too.
Mark Carreau
NASA Johnson Space Center