IV&V's Jennifer Neptune, Program Manager Helps Her Team Members Shine

Name: Jennifer Neptune
Title: IV&V Project Manager for Europa and recently completed detail as the Occupational Health Program Manager for Goddard
Formal Job Classification: Program Analyst
Organization: Code 180, Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard's mission?

I am a project manager at the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, for NASA's IV&V Program. I manage IV&V's effort for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. As for my role, the first thing that comes to mind is, "it's complicated," but a quick way to describe it is just simply leading an independent software verification and validation team. The most interesting part of my job is the opportunity to learn things I wouldn't in any other career path. In terms of supporting Goddard's mission, we add software assurance to the end-to-end capabilities for science and human-rated missions.

From September 2020 to September 2021, I was on a yearlong detail as the occupational health program manager for Goddard. I managed the health unit, fitness center and Employee Assistance Program. The Occupational Health Program focuses on ensuring that our workforce has the care they need to do their jobs.

What is IV&V's role?

Our program is a function of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. We are managerially and financially independent from the projects we work on. We have about 300 people, some of whom are located in Fairmont, while others are at different NASA centers and partner facilities.

IV&V contributes to the safety and success of NASA's highest-profile missions by giving an independent second look at the mission critical software. As the missions develop critical software, we are also looking at and reviewing it in tandem.

What do you do at IV&V for the Europa Clipper mission?

As the project manager, I do my best to make sure my team of analysts have what they need to do their jobs and provide valuable and meaningful information to the mission team developing the software.

My team members are the stars. I'm just here to help them shine.

Europa Clipper, a project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is a satellite that will go to Jupiter's moon Europa. It will look at ice thickness and composition, see if there is liquid water underneath, measure the moon's magnetic field, look at the surface temperature, and determine what particles are in the atmosphere. There are nine instruments aboard Europa Clipper.

What is your educational background?

I went to West Virginia University where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Broadcast Journalism and then, 10 years later, returned and earned a master's in business administration. I also have a Project Management Professional Certification, an industry certification which establishes a baseline of the fundamentals for successful project management.

I am a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, another industry certification in continuous improvement of business and manufacturing processes.

During the 10 years between your bachelor's degree and your MBA, what did you do?

After graduating from college, I tried to get a TV news production job. West Virginia isn't the busiest television news market, so while I put out feelers, I also did what was available to start earning a paycheck. At one point, I had a full-time job and two part-time jobs. One of the part-time jobs was managing the servicing of demo printers in a three-county territory at retail office supply stores.

There's a long story behind why I never got a news production job, but ultimately, I became the audiovisual production coordinator for West Virginia University's Department of Emergency Medicine for about seven years. I had two roles there. First, I provided day-to-day desktop and computer support, including online and internal broadcasts of grand rounds, the weekly educational opportunity led by faculty for the residents.

I also worked on transitioning a classroom-delivered master's program in emergency medicine for physician assistants to an online program. Our two-year program was available to anyone, anywhere in the country. I recorded lectures, created digital content, and put it into an online education delivery platform where it was managed, including the execution of quizzes and tests.

After your MBA, how did you become a program analyst at IV&V?

I finished my MBA in 2008 and worked for West Virginia University in a temporary position for about a year while I was being strategic about my career change. In the spring of 2009, I went to a job fair and found a job at IV&V working on the knowledge management and metrics programs contract. We looked at the communication between the program management and technical experts and how they shared and used information and knowledge. I transitioned to a civil service position in the IV&V Strategic Communications Office in 2013.

When did you join the Europa effort?

In November 2017, I became the deputy IV&V project manager for Europa. I became the project manager in July 2019.

What is your management style?

Team building and collaboration. My goal is to ensure that the team members understand each other, know how to work well together, have everything they need and have no fear in asking for more.

People do not always need help. By "more," it could mean more communication, support, information or any number of things.

How important are teamwork and communication for Europa?

It is extremely important to have good relations with our JPL colleagues. We are part of their team. Our findings identify areas they could change to maximize the likelihood of mission success. We share that common goal of mission success, so building a strong team relationship, communicating well and developing a mutual understanding are critical for the relationship to be as beneficial as possible.

Who inspired you?

Two of my mentors and management inspirations come from my emergency medicine job - the department chair and the administrative department manager. The department chair taught me teamwork, inspiration and acceptance, taking everyone for who they are as they come to work and valuing them. The department manager taught me safety, understanding and support. By safety, I mean more of a professional and emotionally safe environment - having a safe place to talk and the ability to speak freely about work concerns, the job, opportunities and challenges.

As the chair of Goddard's Women's Advisory Committee (WAC), what are your goals?

I joined in 2014 and became chair in 2019. My main goal is to make sure all the women, and women's interest groups, at Goddard have a voice with leadership. We meet as a team once a month and I, as the chair - or another member if I can't make it - join the monthly diversity and inclusion meeting with center leadership. Our annual activities are usually Women's History Month in March and Women's Equality Day on Aug. 26, with some recurring activities for the center's communities of women throughout the year.

Ultimately, I would like to see our membership continue to grow. We also connect all the women's interest groups across the center so we're working together and supporting each other. We're now focusing on what it means to be on the committee and encouraging others to join us while collaborating with the other advisory committees across the center. There are women in every other group, so being inclusive of the concerns for other communities is integral to our team.

Who is your WAC senior champion?

Dr. Christyl Johnson is our senior champion. She is amazing, energetic and inspirational. She gets things done and keeps us reaching for the next big idea.

What do you do for fun?

I like traveling, taking pictures, watercoloring, fly fishing, cooking, reading and trying new things.

What is your "six-word memoir?" A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.

Adventure and knowledge await my fears.

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