Judith Neuffer is an American naval aviator and NASA manager, the first woman to serve as a P-3 pilot in the U.S. Navy. Neuffer looked up to her father who was a pilot in WWII and accompanied her father to work during the summer breaks from the age of 11. By the time she was 15, she had already started flight lessons, and at 16 successfully flied solo in the Piper Cub airplane. At 18, Neuffer attended Ohio State University, graduating four years later with a degree in Computer Science. After graduating, she began her first tour of duty in the Navy when flight training opened to women in 1973. She was one of the first six and was the first woman to fly solo in a US Navy aircraft in 1973. During her Navy flying career, she logged thousands of hours piloting the P-3 and became the first female P-3 Aircraft Commander and the first woman to pilot an aircraft through the eye of a hurricane. Neuffer served a total of 28 years in the U.S. Navy, and during her 10 years on active duty, her tour included numerous flying assignments and a tour at the Pentagon. Judy held three Commanding Officer positions and served as the Director of the Navy’s Science and Technology Reserve Program. Neuffer began her career with NASA in 1981, working first as a contractor for UNISYS Corporation as a Senior Systems Analyst on the Hubble Space Telescope mission. Judy formally joined NASA in 1989, working two years as the ground system Implementation Manager on the Earth Observing System satellite missions. Judy was then selected to head the Spacecraft Control Center Branch, responsible for the development and implementation of all satellite control centers for missions at the Goddard Space Flight Center, later assigned to Goddard Space Flight Center’s Directors Staff serving as the Acting Director and Program Manager for different facilities and missions. Currently, she is the Director of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center and has received numerous awards for her work.