Annie Easley

Annie Easley was an African American computer scientist and accomplished mathematician who made critical contributions to NASA's Rocket systems and energy technologies over her 34-year career.

As a black female in America during the 1950s, she faced heavy adversity throughout her career and was often underrepresented and disregarded.

Despite these barriers Easley demonstrated perseverance and determination to make a name for herself in a line of work dominated by males.

She demonstrated exceptional skills in mathematics, data analysis, and code development across projects focused on alternative energy sources, improved power systems, and launch capabilities enabling space communication and exploration.

Easley's early work involved running simulations at NASA's Plum Brook Reactor Facility and studying the effects of Rocket launches on earth's ozone layer.

She taught herself assembly programming using languages like Formula Translating System (Fortran) and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to help with these simulations.

She would also work on developing code used in researching and analyzing alternative power technologies like batteries and fuel systems, which would be later used in hybrid vehicles and NASA's Centaur upper-stage Rocket.

Annie Easley was born to Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Malvina Hoover in Birmingham, Alabama.

She was raised by her mother and had a brother six years her senior.

In her early years, she aspired to be a nurse, but switched to pharmaceuticals when she began high school.

Before the civil rights movement, education for black communities was extremely limited.

Segregation was prevalent everywhere in society and black children were not offered the same opportunities as white children.

Inspired by her mother to follow her dreams, set goals and work hard at them, Easley dedicated herself to her studies.

She graduated valedictorian of Holy Family High School and enrolled in Xavier University in New Orleans.

Four years later she got married and moved to Cleveland where she would continue to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals, which would later prove improbable.

The next year, she divorced and moved back to Birmingham to be near her family.

Being recently divorced and out of work after recently moving back home, Annie was constantly on the search for work.

However, Jim Crow laws were still in place during this time and black people were required to take literacy tests and pay poll taxes.

Easley would help members of her community to pass these tests, allowing them to receive jobs.

Before the Civil Rights Movement, educational and career opportunities for African-American children were very limited.

Segregation was prevalent, African-American children were educated separately from white children, and their schools were often inferior to white schools.

Annie's mother told her that she could be anything, but she would have to work at it.

She encouraged Annie to get a good education.

From the fifth grade through high school, Annie attended Holy Family High School, and was valedictorian of her graduating class.

At a young age Annie had interest in becoming a nurse, but around the age of 16 she decided to study pharmacy.

In 1950, Easley enrolled in classes at Xavier University in New Orleans, an African-American Catholic university, and majored in pharmacy for about two years.

In 1955, Easley read a story in a local newspaper about twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as "computers".

She applied for a job the next day, and was hired two weeks later, becoming one of four African Americans out of about 2500 employees.

She began her career as computer at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center, 1958–1999, and subsequently the John H. Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio.

Later after electronic computers started being used at NASA her title changed to mathematician and computer technician.

Even with a degree, Easley also had to complete internal specialization courses to be considered a professional at NASA.

Easley was denied financial aid that other employees received for education, without explanation from the agency.

She also noted that she did not feel that her pay was very high when she first started with two years of college.

Although she was promised a GS-3 in her interview, her first paycheck was a GS-2, and when she questioned it she was told there were no more GS-3s available.

Easley's outreach for minorities did not end with her volunteer work at college career days.

At NASA she took upon herself to be an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor.

This was one of the formal ways that she helped her supervisors at NASA address discrimination complaints from all levels.

She was also part of a recruitment effort on behalf of NASA for engineering students from numerous colleges.

Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper Rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, and identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems.

In 1977, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University.