Nagin Cox is a Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is currently a Tactical Mission Manager on both the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and the Mars Curiosity Rover. Nagin has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), the Kepler exoplanet hunter, the Mars Curiosity Rover and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.  Her background includes space systems experience in civilian, commercial, and military space covering development, testing, and operations of project systems, flight systems, mission systems, and payloads for earth orbiting and deep space operations.  She was the successful step1 proposal manager for InSight Mars Lander -launched in 2018 as part of NASA’s Discovery Program. She is a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, as well as the Bruce Murray Award for Exceptional Public Outreach in its inaugural year of 2014.  Nagin holds an MS in Space Operations from the Air Force Institute of Technology. From Cornell University, she received a BS in Operations Research/Industrial Engineering as well as a BA in Psychology. She was formerly a system engineer for IBM and served for 6 years in the US Air Force including duty as a Space Operations Officer at NORAD/US Space Command. She has worked “Mars Time” for 4 missions and her TED talk can be found here: (https://www.ted.com/talks/nagin_cox_what_time_is_it_on_mars). Nagin is honored to be the namesake for Asteroid 14061. She is a U.S. Department of State’s STEM Speaker and has spoken to audiences around the US, Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and South Asia on the stories of the people behind the missions.  She is a past member of Cornell University’s President’s Council for Cornell Women and has served on the Boards of the Griffith Observatory Foundation and Impact Personal Safety: Self-Defense & Empowerment for Women.  She sits on the Advisory Committee for the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and is part of the Advisory Council for the Planetary Society.