2026 Space Minor Industry Panel
"There is no straight path from your seat today to where you are going. Don't try to draw that line. You will not just get it wrong, you'll miss big opportunities. And I mean big-like the Internet. Careers are not ladders, those days are long gone, but jungle gyms. Don't just move up and down, don't just look up, look backwards, sideways around corners. Your career and your life will have starts and stops and zigs and zags. Don't stress out about the white space-the path you can't draw- because there in lies both the surprises and the opportunities."
-Sheryl Sandberg
Individuals from various backgrounds will be at Williams VIllage, Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. The panel will be held from 7pm - 8pm, with desserts and networking to follow.
This event will help showcase that career paths are not always a straight arrow, and we will learn from the panelist about their unique backgrounds, their journey along their career and how they got to where they are now. This is will be an amazing and informative panel that you don't want to miss!
Please join us!
Panelist:
Jeff Lewallen
Mr. Lewallen has 25+ Years in the aerospace/defense industry specifically in remote sensing and ground processing systems. He founded and grew a software company to 50 engineers. He specializes in bringing new attack angles to traditionally unsolvable problems. Mr. Lewallen currently provides executive level consulting to companies pursuing high barrier-to-entry government agencies. He resides in Evergreen, CO and is active in volunteer organizations around his local community.
Lindsay Kirk
Lindsay Kirk is the Entry Aerothermal System Manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Lindsay has worked in the field of hypersonic aerothermodynamics supporting several different reentry vehicles including NASA’s Orion, SpaceX’s Dragon, and Boeing’s Starliner. She received her Bachelors degree from the University of Colorado in Aerospace Engineering Sciences in 2008 and her Masters degree from the University of Minnesota in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics in 2012. She began her career as a Cooperative Education Student at Johnson Space Center in 2005 and joined the space agency full time in 2008.
Jason D. Batt, Ph. D.
Jason D. Batt, Ph. D. is Research Initiative Director for the Human Space Program and Co-Founder of the International Society of Mythology. His work focuses on human cognition, culture, and meaning-making in space exploration, integrating space science, mythology, psychology, and AI. He is the founder of xenomythology, a field examining how myth and meaning evolve as humanity becomes an interstellar species. He is Senior Editor of the Beyond Earth Space Policy & Law Review, the Senior Editor of the Journal of Mythology, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Space Philosophy. He is co-editor of Soul and the Machine: AI, Depth Psychology, and Mythology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). More about him and his work are available at jbatt.com.
Collette Wilfong, Ph. D.
Dr. Collette Wilfong is the Manager of Student Project at the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. Her current role is connecting CU students to NASA funded projects. She received her Bachelors degree from the University of Minnesota in Geophysics in 2017 and her PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder in Geology in 2024. During the time between her undergrad and graduate program Dr.Wilfong was a National Park Ranger and the Geoscientist of the Park at Rocky Mountain National Park.
Maraia Tanner
Maraia Tanner has served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of STAR HARBOR™ since its inception. Maraia has an academic background as an astrophysicist. Her career includes systems engineering at TRW and later Northrop Grumman Space Technology, working on large commercial and defense payloads such as Astrolink, IntelSat, and Airborne Laser (ABL), in addition to many NASA/JPL projects such as James Webb Telescope, EOS, and Terrestrial Planet Finder. Maraia was a lead Conceptual Systems Engineer for the Mars Sample Return and Space Interferometry Missions, where she co-authored Structural Design Challenges for a Shuttle-launched Space Interferometry Mission. Maraia was Mission Engineer for Sensoria I, the first all-woman analog crew in the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI–SEAS) habitat. She was also part of the first FAA-certified flight attendant class for Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G) and served as a Flight Coach for nine years. Additionally, she has experience as a previous founder, owner, and president of a marketing consulting firm.
Maraia is passionate about helping to generate radical solutions for climate change and sustainability and increasing access to Space and improving diversity in the STEAM fields.