Shownotes
Meet Christy McFerren, an experienced Human Resources (HR) and Operations professional with a proven track record in developing and elevating HR and Marketing departments through strong collaboration with all levels of management and key stakeholders. Currently serving as the Human Resources Manager at Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation (VT-ARC), Christy brings a unique perspective to the space industry by bridging people, innovation, and the future of space exploration. In this episode, she shares her inspiring journey and her passion for empowering the next generation of women leaders.
Christy has supported various industries, including Federal Government agencies like the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Commercial Real Estate, Wastewater Management, and Fairfax County Public Schools. At VT-ARC, she leads HR initiatives, ensuring people have the resources and tools they need to succeed. Her work intersects with the space realm through VT-ARC’s partnership intermediary agreement with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), supporting STEM education and technology marketing initiatives.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
• Christy’s path to HR leadership
• Empowering women in space
• HR’s evolving role in innovation
• Bridging diverse skills for space
• Inspiring future generations
Quote:
“I want our daughters growing up today to understand that whatever they want to be is within their grasp.”
— Christy McFerren
Episode Links:
• Connect with Christy on LinkedIn
• Visit VT-ARC
Credits:
Production by CxS Partners LTD
Executive Producer: Toby Goodman
Audio & Sound Design: Lee Turner
Recorded on location in Virginia, USA with thanks to Nomono’s Sound Capsule
Find your place in the business of space: https://interastra.space
Transcripts
I grew up at GSA. And for me, being in the late eighties, being a woman is so vastly different than being a woman today.
I feel that there's still a lot of growth. There's still a lot of gaps for women in the workforce. But being pretty much the only woman around a table to discussing whatever we're discussing, being the only woman was very awkward and intimidating at times.
And I want our daughters growing up today to understand that whatever they want to be is within their grasp because at 18 years old and if I'm if I'm sitting around a table full of men right out of high school, they can do the same thing too. There is no end to what we can accomplish.
Hi! I'm Christy McFerren, and you're listening to Your Business in Space. I'm currently the human resources manager for Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation based in Arlington, Virginia. In my job, I help people in the organization grow their careers. I hire people to just to support our mission, in the area of wireless technology.
So Virginia Tech Applied Resource Corporation is a nonprofit, and our mission is to provide innovative solutions that safeguard the nation and advance global welfare. Being a human resources manager today is vastly different than it was a decade ago or even 2 decades ago. But I see people think of human resources managers as people that just push paper. Right? We onboard people.
We find people to fold jobs.
We write up job descriptions. We make sure that we're in compliance with all the local state laws. We work on making sure that people grow in the company. They feel fulfilled in their careers.
But nowadays, human resources is just vastly different because I think that growing up in this in the system, I'm kind of, like, near the end of my career, and HR today is about knowing all facets of any business that you work in. It's about making sure that whatever business that you're working in, that they don't put HR in a box, because business is about people.
If you allow HR to extend themselves beyond the bots and be able to reach out to the various departments in whatever organization that you're in, it's amazing what can be done when we all partner together and seek new ways of of doing business.
Growing up, I was a tomboy. Very much enjoyed, playing with dinosaurs, playing with, cars, you know, the little matchbox cars, very much like going outside and playing with all my friends. Mostly, they were boys, you know, just kicking the soccer ball around and things like that.
My idol was my father. Right?
And, you know, my father, he was born in Manila, Philippines, and I was just in awe of him because he came from a very, very poor background. And he came to the United States and decided that he wanted to be part of the Navy.
And so he grew up in the in the Navy and, got to experience all of these things, became a citizen after a while. And he chose the name Jesse because his idol at that time was Jesse James.
And so I watched him, you know, do all these things, experience all these things, and, you know, he started working for, the navy department in Crystal City.
And it was such a joy to to go to work with him, be able to experience, you know, what he did, all the people that he related to, all the people that looked up to him.
I was just in awe of him. Grew up in Virginia, and he worked in Crystal City, Virginia.
It was just great to see him. And then I felt like my world just kinda tumbled after that because when I was 14 years old, I I lost him. I lost him to pancreatic cancer, and I actually thought my world was going to end. You know? I didn't want to eat, drink, whatever.
I didn't wanna go to school. But then I met this history teacher my freshman year, the summer after I lost him. Missus DuPreece was her name, and she took me under her ring and gave me hope and told me everything that was gonna be okay. And when I thought about not going to school anymore, all of a sudden, she made me feel like I wanted to. I had hope, and she was just there for me all the time. And so I ended up graduating high school, but because my my single mom at the time didn't have money to send me to to college like everyone else, I went to go work for general services administration, just shy of my 18th birthday.
And I started off as a GS 2 clerk working for a man by the name of Joe Mello who just happened to be one of my greatest mentors of all time. And Joe gave me gave me an ultimatum.
He said, you know, you can either sit here and be a GS clerk for the rest of your life or you can make something of yourself. And he suggested at that time, the IBM computer just came out, and he said, I'll send you to school as long as you pass. Right?
I'll pay for you to go to school. So I went to Northern Virginia Community College and studied information technology at the time. Well, my career took off because I got a job shortly after that, working at GSA Administration on 18th and F Street near the White House, and I and I went there and became a computer specialist, ended my career as a GS 12 after having our first child, and, you know, basically, the rest is history. I throughout my entire life, I've been blessed with such amazing supervisors, who were also my mentors, who also became my best friend. So after I left GSA, I went, I wanted to do something because I'm one of those people that have to be doing something all the time. I don't sleep.
So the person that I worked with before I left, GSA, actually offered me a job, working for FEMA as a systems analyst in a contract, and that was great. I did that for 5 years by raising, my daughter, and then during that time, I had my son.
And and then after I I completed the systems analyst position because our contract came to an end, at that time, my kids were both in elementary school, and I knew I just wanted to get back into the workforce. I I thought I wanted to get back into information technology, but I guess I guess God had a different plan. Human resources literally fell into my lap. I went to go work for a company, and the HR manager at the time just decided to up and leave.
And, so my boss at the time, realizing that I had a a variety of skill set, said, you know, could you fill in for a little bit? Right? And so I did, and it just came naturally to me because I just have a passion for people. I I love to learn about people.
I love to know what makes them tick. I love to know what makes them talk, you know, what brings them in to do what they do every day. Why did they choose to be who they who they are? And that that's just something that I wanna come to work, you know, for every day is is to continue to learn about people and to make sure that they have the resources and tools to be who they are.
My passion for space actually came into play when I started working for Virginia Tech Applied Resource Corporation.
I always had worked in the commercial real estate arena as a human resources, manager or director of operations and human resources. So coming to Virginia Tech, you know, they had a totally different mission. And after learning all of the vast array of innovative technologies that we do, one of those things that we do is we have this partnership intermediary agreement with AFOSR. Learning about that AFOSR contract, we provide STEM support.
We do t three technology, marketing, and all of those things.
I was introduced into the space realm. Most recently, I had the opportunity to work with Chuck, who's one of our PMs out in Colorado, whose mission is to bring people together in the space arena. And so I believe that's when I first got my passion for space.
And also, you know, it's not just a passion for for space, but it's about how we can come together to support anything of the future that's not gonna only accelerate technology, but be able to bring excitement to our youth.
And and our youth today need to be inspired, and I believe space is one of those vehicles where we could inspire people because space is our future. It's the bottom line.
I never thought that I would attend a space event at Virginia Tech Applied Resource Corporation.
Part of our mission part of our PA mission is to bring people to together, network, develop partnerships across a variety of different vehicles. And I was invited to go to the Inter Astra space event last week, and it was amazing to me that all these people had vast backgrounds, but they all had one mission, and that was to accelerate the space, domain in whatever shape or or form.
And it was so I felt alive for the first time in a long time hearing from a variety of people from academics, from from, you know, economic communities, from, you know, people helping veterans, people that were passionate about STEM. All of these people were there. And I'm thinking to myself that it would be amazing to see how it can bring all those people together to inspire our youth to become part of what is our future.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about space is, you know, normally, when you get into a room, of people and you talk about space, it's it's always about, okay, mechanical engineering, data scientists, astronauts, things like that, but it's so much more than that. You know, you're talking about hitting all kinds of demographics can that can contribute to the space domain. You're talking about teachers.
You're talking about farmers trying to grow vegetables, to be on another planet. People often think that space is just about astronauts. It's about so much more than that.
And for me, being a human resources manager and and knowing that space is our future, if there is any way that I can drive impact, whether it's through job boards, whether it's through career pathways, whether it's through develop it and learning or STEM education, or anything like that, then I would have felt like I made a difference in my lifetime.
To be successful in space, one has to have an open mind.
People need to be brought together because often you find people are siloed in their thinking. We have educators. We have human resources managers.
We have finance people. They have people from Fintech. Right?
We have we have, marketing people.
We've got all of these vast arrays of backgrounds and subject matter experts. And in order to be successful in space, we need to bridge that gap and hopes for a better future for all of us. I think when it comes to space, the opportunities are endless, and that's what excites me. There's no end to it. Understand that we're all in this together.
And if we're going to create a better world for ourselves in the in the future, that's more important now than it ever was.
People are so important to me, and I always think about how can I help people more with the skill sets that I have? For me, I'm going to continue my journey in ensuring that human resources should not be kept in a box.
People are about business. I think the next step for me also, being as excited as I am about the space domain and how we can bring people together, is I would love to work on a on a project where we can start talking about bringing those people together in whatever shape or form.
And, again, space, it's an endless realm. So that's what excites me, and that's what I'm hoping to work on next.
My name is Christy McFerren, and you've been listening to 'Your Business in Space'.
All the ways to connect with me are in links in the show notes.
To discover more, head to InterAstra.Space
