NASA Pays Tribute to Hidden Figure Dorothy J. Vaughan: A Computing Pioneer

NASA Pays Tribute to Hidden Figure Dorothy J. Vaughan: A Computing Pioneer

This tribute is narrated by Octavia Spencer. She starred in the landmark 2016 film "Hidden Figures".

Dorothy J. Vaughan was a pioneer human computer and visionary. She was essential to the expansion of a diverse workforce across NASA. She began her career with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1943 as part of the segregated West Area Computing Unit—an all-black group of female mathematicians. Their ground-breaking work and remarkable contributions changed the NASA community.

Promoted to lead the West Area Computers in 1949, Vaughan was NACA’s first black supervisor and one of its few female supervisors. She was a steadfast advocate for the women that worked as human computers, and for all the people under her leadership.

Dorothy Vaughan helmed West Computing for nearly a decade. In 1958, when the NACA made the transition to NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished. Dorothy Vaughan and many of the former West Computers joined the new Analysis and Computation Division (ACD), a racially and gender-integrated group on the frontier of electronic computing. Dorothy Vaughan became an expert FORTRAN programmer, and she also contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program.

Through her exceptional leadership and dedication to the betterment of all individuals—particularly women of color, her legacy informed the agency’s current diverse workforce. 

Innovators like Vaughan laid the foundation for NASA to revisit the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, this time with the first woman and first person of color under the Artemis program.

Date of Birth: September 20, 1910

Hometown: Kansas City, MO

Education: B.A., Mathematics, Wilberforce University, 1929

Hired by NACA: December 1943

Retired from NASA: 1971

Date of Death: November 10, 2008

Learn more about Dorothy J. Vaughan:

https://www.nasa.gov/people/dorothy-vaughan/

Credit: NASA

Producer: Sonnet Apple

Duration: 2 minutes, 28 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 5, 2024

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