Caeley Looney is an aerospace engineer that’s paving the way for future generations of women in STEM. She works full time in the commercial space industry where she serves as a Flight Director and Mission Operations Engineer for a lunar lander, and then comes home to run a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that’s all about empowering and inspiring girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Caeley’s passion for engineering was sparked early. Her mom, who was also an engineer, coaxed her into attending a robotics demonstration at her local Girl Scout council and all it took was one look at the robots in action for Caeley to fall in love. “Being able to witness the robots performing tasks, moving autonomously around the game’s field, and doing what someone else programmed them to do was incredible. I wanted to be able to innovate and invent like that for myself,” said Caeley.
She quickly joined an all-girls FIRST robotics team while still in middle school, and her curiosity and excitement for STEM blossomed from there. She worked with her team to design, build, and program robots each year; so when the time came for her to begin applying for colleges, she naturally gravitated towards engineering schools.
In 2014, Caeley started pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Being away from home for the first time was a challenge, and Caeley quickly found herself struggling in her coursework. After failing her first Statics exam, her professor suggested that she might have test anxiety. He saw her excelling in the classroom, yet failing her exams and quizzes. He helped her seek help at the university’s counseling center, where she received an ADHD diagnosis. “This diagnosis gave me a lot of clarity. All of a sudden I had a real reason for why I was struggling in class. I didn’t have the same crutches I had growing up that kept me in a routine and on track, I had to create them for myself. And, knowing that I had ADHD made me realize that I was good enough despite the struggle, I just thought differently and needed to leverage different learning methods to succeed like my classmates,” mentioned Caeley.
TW: Mental Health
Despite finally having a name for the reason she was failing her classes, she continued to struggle. On top of that, being, often, the only woman in the classroom made her feel out of place in her degree program. She had professors and peers tell her that women didn’t belong in aerospace engineering, and the imposter syndrome worsened with each comment. Caeley recalls, “one professor in my freshman year told me that the only way he saw me being able to succeed in my engineering degree was if I ‘put a ring on my finger and kept it there.’ It’s one thing to believe you don’t belong, and it’s another to be told you don’t belong.” Her mental health deteriorated, she was hospitalized multiple times during her collegiate journey; but she finally graduated in May 2018.
Shortly after graduation, Caeley began her first full-time job at L3Harris Technologies as a Space Mission Analyst. Here, she played an integral role in the development of their Small Satellite Enterprise. She supported programs in all phases of their lifecycle, from proposal writing to helping operate satellites that were already on-orbit. Every day, Caeley came in to work and fulfilled the dream she had in sixth grade: she was working on innovative technology that would one day go to space. She developed new tools to conduct different mission level analyses; such as balancing the power budget, running Monte Carlo simulations with different orbital parameters, or finding new methods to implement in flight software. And, while still working, Caeley was able to complete her M.S. in Space Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
In 2019, about one year into her new career, Caeley founded Reinvented Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that develops print and digital resources, leverages social media, and conducts in-person workshops to inspire, engage, and elevate girls and women in STEM. At its core, Reinvented works to make STEM education as accessible as possible to girls interested and curious about science and engineering.
Reinvented accomplishes this by offering three core programs: (1) Reinvented Magazine - a biannual print magazine that amplifies the voices of diverse, female role models in STEM for readers in grades 6 - 12, (2) One-for-One Program - eliminates socioeconomic barriers preventing girls from gaining access to STEM education resources by offering the content Reinvented develops for free to Title I schools, and (3) Princesses with Powertools - enables girls to get over engineering fears and get hands-on with STEM in a welcoming environment. Since Reinvented’s inception, Caeley and her team have been able to bring STEM education materials and resources to over 300,000 students worldwide and over 15,000 girls in grades K-8 have learned how to use their first powertool as part of the Princesses with Powertools Program.
“I’ve witnessed gender bias first hand, in college and even still to this day in my workplace. I was fortunate to have my mom as a role model growing up. As a naval engineer, she constantly encouraged me to ‘reach for the stars,’ but not every girl grows up with such easy access to role models in STEM. I started Reinvented in an effort to change that.”
I wanted our magazine to provide a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. I wanted to develop this community of role models and girls alike where they can rely on each other, build each other up, and inspire those around them.”
Now, Caeley is a Mission Operations Engineer at Firefly Aerospace where she supports their commercial lunar lander program, called Blue Ghost. She is currently training to be the first female Flight Director to successfully land a mission on the surface of the Moon, and is on track to claim that historic title when her first lunar mission launches at the end of 2024. Don’t worry though, she continues her work with Reinvented and uses her experiences as a woman in STEM to inspire others as often as she can.
By: Caeley Looney
Check out this article and others like it in our Empowering Women in Industry Digital Magazine.
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