MELBOURNE, FLA. — A trio of Florida Tech alumni with the professional experience and visionary insight to assess how space transportation has evolved since Apollo and where it might be headed will share their views at the F. Alan Smith Distinguished Lecture on Feb. 20 at Gleason Performing Arts Center.
The free, public event is from 5-6:15 p.m. Registration is required.
The panelists are Joan Higginbotham ’92 M.S., ’96 M.S.; Lauren-Ann Graham ’20 ’23 M.S., and James “Jimmy” Jenkins ’98 M.S.
The evening’s master of ceremonies will be John Zarrella, who like the panelists he will question is well versed in the arc of human space flight. He started at CNN in 1981, was named the network’s Miami correspondent two years later and was soon CNN’s principal space correspondent, a position he’d hold for 27 years.
Zarrella covered major space stories over the next several decades, including the 1986 Challenger disaster, John Glenn’s return to space in 1998 and the conclusion of the shuttle program in 2011. He figures he witnessed at least 75 shuttle launches.
That included Shuttle Discovery’s Dec. 9, 2006, launch. Onboard was Mission Specialist Joan Higginbotham, a two-time Florida Tech graduate who operated the shuttle’s robotic arm during the 12-day mission to continue construction of the International Space Station.
An electrical engineer and rocket scientist, Higginbotham retired from NASA in 2007 after 20 years at the space agency and began a distinguished career with Fortune 500 companies in aerospace, energy and retail. In 2022, she founded Joan Higginbotham, Ad Astra, LLC, an aerospace consulting firm that recently worked with Blue Origin.
Also on the panel is aspiring astronaut Lauren-Ann Graham. Graham is a Lockheed Martin mechanical test engineer currently supporting NASA’s Gateway program, which includes work on the Orion spacecraft that may carry humans back to the moon. From the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center, she supported the Artemis 1 mission management team during launch operations.
The panel’s third member is James “Jimmy” Jenkins. A West Point graduate, the retired U.S. Army colonel spent nearly 28 years in the service, departing as deputy commander for operations for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command.
Since then, Jenkins has forged an impactful career in the private sector. He is currently
president and general manager of the Armed Forces Portfolio at BlueHalo. Before this, he served as director of strategic programs at Dynetics, focusing on hypersonics, high-energy lasers and space systems, after spending five years at Northrop Grumman, where he oversaw integrated air and missile defense systems.
F. Alan Smith, a generous benefactor, established the lecture program in 2007 to enhance the academic experience for students, introduce outstanding speakers to the university, and engage the community around the topic of transportation—the industry to which he dedicated his career.
A nearly 30-year member of the Florida Tech Board of Trustees, Smith had a prestigious career at General Motors Corporation that spanned more than 35 years. He passed away in 2023.
