In this special Making Leaders and SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, we hear from Joan Tang Mancuso, Marketing & Business Development Consultant (now retired), who was selected as SSPI’s 2024 Mentor of the Year.

Joan has provided expert guidance, mentorship and support to young people in the space & satellite industry throughout her more-than-30-year career and long after retiring from full-time work. As a member of the SSPI Mid-Atlantic Chapter Board, she spearheaded the creation, promotion and implementation of a scholarship program to help inner city high school students with STEM education. An inaugural participant in SSPI-WISE’s Mentorship program, Joan mentored four different women across three countries, guiding them through career development, job changes, promotions and professional and personal challenges. Of particular note, she guided one mentee through a successful career transition from a technical role to a managerial position and helped another advance her career while navigating a difficult international relocation. Joan has also provided her insights and expertise to broader groups of women and industry professionals through a number of SSPI-WISE panels and online discussions. Read more about Joan.

You can watch the interview in video format here:

The Promise and Mentor Honoree podcasts are sponsored by

SSPI’s Making Leaders campaign is made possible with the support of our corporate partners

In this SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, SSPI Director of Engagement Tamara Bond-Williams speaks with Penelope Longbottom, former Senior Advisor, Satellite Division at Sage Communications, now retired, and a Member of the Space & Satellite Hall of Fame and Andrea Maleter, former Technical Director at the Futron Corporation, now retired, and the 2010 SSPI Mentor of the Year.

Penelope launched her eponymous firm Longbottom Communications, LLC, in 2000. It was a full-service branding, public relations and marketing communications firm that advised and served a spectrum of clients in the global space, satellite, telecommunications and broadband sectors. In 2015 the firm was acquired by McLean-based Sage Communications, at which time Ms. Longbottom took full retirement. In 2016 she was inducted into the SSPI Hall of Fame in honor of her contributions fostering global awareness and the benefits of satellite communications to governments, enterprises, public safety, disaster management and ever-evolving applications and markets.

Penelope devoted over three decades to helping her employers, and later clients, drive strategic messaging and branding to foster market growth and help a skeptical public understand and utilize satellites for rapidly expanding communications capabilities. She applied her PR and marketing expertise first in the analogue world of television and cable broadcasting, through the evolution of digital direct-to-home TV and radio, mobile communications and multiple business applications and vertical markets. She entered the industry in 1985 as Director of Communications for Hughes Communications. Departing Hughes in 1996, Penelope was tapped by Lockheed Martin Corp. to help stand up and brand its newly created Lockheed Martin Intersputnik unit in London, a new partnership with Russia. Following that short-lived venture, Penelope was appointed VP of Lockheed Martin’s Space & Strategic Missiles Division. In 1999, she joined XM Satellite Radio to brand and drive the go-to market strategy of this first U.S.-licensed digital satellite radio operator to launch. Read more about Penelope.

Andrea Maleter spent some 40 years in the global satellite, telecommunications and aerospace industries. As a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Futron she provided policy, regulatory, investment and marketing advice to telecommunications companies, satellite manufacturing businesses and governments worldwide on areas including strategies for new technology implementation; telecommunications sector policy and privatization. Prior to consulting she held management positions at INTELSAT and COMSAT where she participated in the development of global telecommunications satellite markets and the planning and procurement of new satellite systems.

Andrea currently serves as Co-Chair of the SSPI-WISE Mentoring Working Group and has been instrumental in the formation and success of the SSPI-WISE Mentorship program. Read more about Andrea.

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SSPI’s campaigns are made possible with the support of our corporate partners

In this SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, Tamara Bond-Williams, Director of Engagement at SSPI, speaks with Merissa Velez, Chief of the Satellite Programs and Policy Division at the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Space Bureau. This podcast is the second episode of New Ideas in Space Safety, the podcast of the SSPI topic campaign: Reducing the Risks of Space, Part 2: New Ideas in Space Safety.

Merissa Velez is Chief of the Satellite Programs and Policy Division of the Federal Communications Commission’s Space Bureau. In this role, Ms. Velez oversees a team addressing legal and policy issues associated with the licensing and regulation of satellite systems. Ms. Velez has focused on satellite regulatory issues at the FCC for the past ten years, and was previously the Chief of the Satellite Policy Branch in the International Bureau’s Satellite Division. Prior to joining the FCC, Ms. Velez clerked for the Supreme Court of Hawaii and worked in the legal publishing industry. Ms. Velez is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and Middlebury College.

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The Reducing the Risks of Space, Part 2: New Ideas in Space Safety campaign is underwritten by the Space Shuttle Children’s Trust Fund

SSPI’s campaigns are made possible with the support of our corporate partners

In this SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, Tamara Bond-Williams, Director of Engagement at SSPI, speaks with Diana Klochkova, Chief Marketing Officer at Privateer Space, a pioneering company dedicated to making space access safer and more accessible. This podcast is the first episode of New Ideas in Space Safety, the podcast of the SSPI topic campaign: Reducing the Risks of Space, Part 2: New Ideas in Space Safety.

Diana Klochkova is CMO of Privateer, where she leads marketing for the space start-up as it builds the tools that will make space safer and more accessible. Diana’s background spans a variety of roles in B2C, B2B, digital, and content marketing. In 2018, she founded Zaya, a boutique agency focusing on purpose-driven projects. Prior to Zaya, she held leadership roles at Rebel Ventures, Omnicom Media Group and Levi Strauss & Co.

This podcast is sponsored by

The Reducing the Risks of Space, Part 2: New Ideas in Space Safety campaign is underwritten by the Space Shuttle Children’s Trust Fund

SSPI’s Better Satellite World campaign is made possible with the support of our corporate partners

In this SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, guest host Divya-Kala Bhavani, General Manager for PR, Communications & Marketing at Dhruva Space and co-chair of the SSPI-WISE Elevating Women Working Group interviews Pramoda Hegde, former Mission Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). They discuss Pramoda’s journey from a small coastal village in India to Mission Director at the ISRO and how she continues in retirement to tour different villages across India to speak with young engineering hopefuls about the space industry. A note for non-Indian listeners of this podcast: the convention “Pramoda Ma’am” is an expression of respect for a female elder that is common in India.

Divya-Kala Bhavani oversees the Public Relations, Communications & Marketing activities at Dhruva Space, a full-stack Space engineering company and the first private Space-Technology company in India. Divya-Kala has previously worked as a journalist and National Technology Features Editor at The Hindu, one of India’s largest and oldest English daily newspapers. Divya-Kala holds a Master’s degree in Media & Communications Governance from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s (Hons) in Journalism from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Divya-Kala is an active member of HAPS Alliance and of Space and Satellite Professionals International and SSPI-WISE, where she is the Co-Chair of the Elevating Women Working Group.

Dhruva Space has been recognized twice by the Government of India, having been awarded the National Startup Award for its efforts in Satellite and Space Technology, and having been awarded the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Excellence Award 2022 for the company’s work in the field of Satellite Communications. On 24 June 2022, Dhruva Space became one of the first private companies to receive authorization from IN-SPACe. The company has since completed three Space missions within 12 months; including the history-making Thybolt Mission, which saw the launch of India’s first two private satellites, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2, authorized by IN-SPACe, to be successfully deployed into orbit. In January 2024, Dhruva Space also successfully validated its P-30 Nanosatellite platform, which kicks off the company’s LEAP initiative of hosted payload solutions for the global market.

Pramoda Hegde is a former Mission Director at the Indian Space Research Organisation. Her career at ISRO spanned 32 years, during which she played pivotal roles in some of India’s historic Space missions. In 2011, Pramoda was designated as Mission Director for the GSAT-12 mission; this was the first time a woman was designated as Mission Director for a GEO Mission in ISRO’s history; additionally, this was also the first time all three key positions of a mission were handled by women. Pramoda also took on the roles of Project Manager, Operations Director, and Deputy Project Director for many other Geostationary satellite missions: INSAT-4A and INSAT-4B, GSAT-9 GSAT-12, GSAT-18, and GSAT-31.

After retiring from ISRO, Pramoda frequently delivers lectures at various research institutes across India, and is also known for her ‘From Village to Space’ storytelling sessions where she recounts her journey of growing up in Muroor, a small farming village in India, and eventually joining ISRO.

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SSPI’s campaigns are made possible with the support of our corporate partners

On September 28 during the September open meeting, SSPI-WISE was pleased to offer a workshop on entrepreneurship. This podcast, the first of the SSPI-WISE Presents series, is based on that inspiring workshop.

Everyone charts their own career path and for some that path is entrepreneurial. We have all heard about the challenges and successes of “running your own business,” but this podcast offers you a first-hand look through the experiences of a panel of women entrepreneurs. You’ll hear answers to your questions on key issues including:

• Why start your own business
• How to establish Goals, Mission, and Value Proposition
• Developing Finance and other Resources

In this podcast, you’ll hear from:

• Mary Frost, CEO, Power to Change US
• Susan Irwin, President, Irwin Communications
• Andy Steinem, CEO, Dahl-Morrow International
• Dasha Tyshlek, CEO, StratCraft

SSPI’s podcast series are made possible with the support of our corporate partners