Carol Higgins has a degree in Business, Management and Economics from Empire State College. Her work career includes over 15 years of experience providing software and hardware technical support services to international customers and field support personnel. For five years she was Vice President and Director of Application Software Development for a computer software company, managing programming and product test services staff. She was Product Manager for an international information technology software, computer and Internet solutions company, responsible for product strategy and project planning, marketing and product launch efforts, and budget management. Currently she volunteers at a local non-profit organization, where she helps teach computer classes and various job preparation workshops to unemployed and underemployed women. Her life-long interest in space exploration began the day her elementary school teacher rolled a small television set into the classroom in the early days of the Mercury program. She was awestruck as she watched a rocket blast off, carrying a U.S. astronaut into space. She was hooked, and has continued that passion for learning more about our solar system, space exploration, rocket launches and astronomy. She is an amateur astronomer and a member of the outreach team of a local astronomy club. She regularly presents educational programs at club meetings and local STEAM events, and enjoys sharing her telescopes and knowledge of the night sky with others during monthly stargazing events. Since 2014 she has been writing a monthly astronomy related article for a local magazine that is distributed throughout the region. She hopes to inspire others to learn more about crewed and robotic exploration missions, discoveries, and our solar system and beyond the same way she was inspired as a young girl filled with curiosity.