{"id":10030,"date":"2019-12-17T21:09:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T21:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/?p=10030"},"modified":"2019-12-18T16:15:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T16:15:16","slug":"southern-nash-native-ncc-alumnus-works-as-mechanical-engineer-at-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/2019\/12\/southern-nash-native-ncc-alumnus-works-as-mechanical-engineer-at-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"NCC Alumnus, Southern Nash Native Works as Mechanical Engineer at NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chad E. Brown<\/p><\/div>\n

Nash Community College alumnus Chad Brown recently offered insight into his time at NCC and the decisions that propelled his career forward.<\/p>\n

Brown graduated from Southern Nash High School in 1987 and \u201chad\u00a0no\u00a0plans for college,\u201d he recalls. He held a few jobs including pest control and pizza delivery before landing a machinist position on third shift at Bendix in Rocky Mount.<\/p>\n

For 10 years he continued work as a machinist. \u201cI hit a plateau as a Manufacturing Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace working in production machining, sub-assembly, and integration testing. I could not proceed any higher in my career without an education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brown enrolled at NCC in the college transfer program at the recommendation of his peers at Honeywell. He graduated with honors in 2002 with Associate in Science and Associate in Arts degrees. He transferred to North\u00a0Carolina\u00a0State University where he\u00a0excelled as\u00a0a Dean\u2019s List student, member of Pi Tau Sigma International Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, research assistant for the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance and a student member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage students to take as many engineering and transfer courses at NCC as possible before going to the next level,\u201d\u00a0Brown\u00a0said. \u201cThe benefits of a smaller class and one-on-one exchanges with the instructors at NCC versus a four college are immeasurable.”<\/p>\n

In 2004, he graduated from NCSU with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, with honors. Upon graduation,\u00a0Brown began his career at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and has\u00a0contributed to major NASA programs, including Launch Services, Constellation, and Ground Systems Development and Operations Programs.<\/p>\n

In his 15 years\u00a0with NASA, he has worked as a Flight Systems Structural Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Project Manager, Ares V Engineering Project Manager and Lead Flight Integration Engineer\/Space Launch System Liaison.<\/p>\n

Today, he serves as the Advanced Planning and Payload Technical Integration Manager for the Exploration Ground Systems Program. Brown assists with\u00a0planning and development of facilities, ground systems, test and verification strategy, logistics, and prelaunch, launch, and recovery operations for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion Programs. He is responsible for the technical integration of payloads on the Space Launch System including Gateway and Human Landing Systems, in support of the Artemis mission to return humans to the moon. Additionally, he handles\u00a0integration, assessments, and advanced planning for other future NASA missions like Europa Clipper.<\/p>\n

Brown is the recipient of several NASA awards, including the Exceptional Service Medal, Exceptional Achievement Medal, Space Flight Awareness Program’s Honoree Award and multiple peer awards.<\/p>\n

Recalling his time at NCC, he says instructor Amanda Lee’s Public Speaking was a class that made a profound impact on him.\u00a0\u201cI learned how to present myself from that class forward,” he said. “Public speaking is far more than learning how to give a speech. It’s how you market yourself each time you speak. Learning to be a persuasive speaker early in one\u2019s career will pay dividends throughout your professional and personal life.” Lee now serves as president at Bladen Community College.<\/p>\n

Brown grew up just outside of Bailey, NC where his father and other family members still reside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nash Community College alumnus Chad Brown recently offered insight into his time at NCC and the decisions that propelled his career forward. Brown graduated from Southern Nash High School in… Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10030"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10111,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030\/revisions\/10111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nashccnews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}