Denise Coleman

Denise Coleman was born in Syracuse, NY, and her family moved to Florida in 1965 as her father became part of the fledgling Space Program team. After watching Apollo rockets fly over her childhood school playgrounds, she joined NASA in 1978 at the beginning of the Shuttle Program. She supported the rollout of STS-1 through the final flight of STS-135, and then continued to support the NASA Commercial Crew Program and Artemis missions. She received several awards, with highlights being a NASA Certificate of Commendation, the Spaceflight Awareness Award, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.

Denise has held various administrative roles in her 42-1/2 year career, including Education Program Specialist, under the NASA Office of STEM Engagement. She supported programs that engaged local and national K-12 educators and students; school districts; university faculty and students; Space Grants; Challenger Centers; science centers and museums; and informal education programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, and the Boy and Girl Scout organizations. She has had key roles on multiple teams that ran collegiate NASA challenges and competitions. Her last role was as the NASA STEM activity lead of the Next Gen STEM Commercial Crew Program. With a team of education specialists from across KSC, JSC, LARC, GRC and NASA HQs, developed K-12 curriculum and activities related to the CCP program. She worked with education and public affairs reps from SpaceX and Boeing to ensure the NASA CCP story was fully disseminated to the public. Throughout her career, she supported NASA Guest Operations for multiple launches and special events. This included being the KSC lead liaison for the astronaut extended families, working closely with the JSC Astronaut Office to ensure optimum launch experiences for the families.

Denise is married to husband, Marty, and has a son, daughter and son-in-law. She enjoys reading (plans to volunteer at the local library), the beach, gardening and traveling.