With nearly 4,500 hours and 180 days in space as a NASA astronaut, Cady Coleman is a veteran of two space shuttle missions and was part of a six-month tour on the International Space Station.  Her comment to Sandra Bullock in this video — that she deliberately let her hair grow for this mission so girls watching would clearly recognize her as a woman — suggests her strong commitment to education as well as to space flight.

With a doctorate in polymer science and engineering from University of Massachusetts Amherst and a BS in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she’s a great example of the heights that women and men can reach.  Making her home here in western Massachusetts, Coleman has an impressive list of accolades in science and space and is featured on MAKERS, the largest video collection of women’s stories.  You can view  several videos at MAKERS about her experiences and attitudes concerning the challenges she has faced, all of which clearly show her to have the right stuff.

You can also watch Coleman’s appearance on WGBY’s Connecting Point with our own Jim Madigan, where she discusses her appearance on the PBS series Makers and her role as a NASA Astronaut as well as her TEDxNASA talk, Why 6 Months in Space Is Not Enough.