Her Story
About Ana
Ana Jones serves as a scheduler for a contractor supporting NASA programs, including the Human Landing System now part of the Artemis program, a position she has held for just over two years since 2024. Her professional journey began after college with seven years in social work at nonprofits, supporting adults and children with intellectual disabilities. She then transitioned into project coordination in commercial construction, where she developed skills in scheduling and project financial management. In her current role, Ana coordinates between internal NASA teams and external partners such as SpaceX and Blue Origin to ensure aligned project timelines and information sharing. She has been recognized with a project completion award for her contributions to a previous project, which helped open the door to her NASA-related opportunity. Ana is a member of Young Professionals of Huntsville and draws on her diverse background, including leading program adaptations during the pandemic, to bring adaptability and coordination expertise to her work in the aerospace exploration and defense industries.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ana
01What do you attribute your success to?
Several factors have influenced my success. I have a strong support system. I'm lucky to have a family that has shown consistent emotional, financial, physical support over the course of my life. They taught me to have a good work ethic and to have accountability. I've had exceptional mentors that taught me emotional intelligence, timing, and critical thinking skills. Honestly, I've also been lucky with well‑timed opportunities of which I took advantage. You have to be willing to risk leaving what is comfortable and take on new positions. Those leaps of faith lead to the most growth. That and persistent determination. It's okay to have bad days. You just can't let them define the experience.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Learn when to be quiet and when to speak up. Not every moment requires your voice, and not every moment allows for your silence. Listening has the same power as leading.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Give yourself grace. You’ll make mistakes. There will be skills that are difficult to learn, people who are tough to work with. Take advantage of opportunities- even ones that don’t look like part of the original plan. Your path will rarely unfold in a straight line. Don’t be afraid to pivot, to explore, and to step into new roles. Have faith in yourself.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
These projects operate under intense time pressure. Integration timelines, milestone tracking, and rapid changes create environments where every delay can ripple across major deliverables. Detailed timelines illustrate how tight, interdependent, and unforgiving schedules can be. Meeting deadlines isn’t just about delivering a product quickly; it’s about managing constant change, absorbing new information quickly, and adjusting plans without sacrificing accuracy. Clear communication is one of the hardest challenges, and also one of the most important. NASA projects involve large, distributed teams, contractors, and multiple centers. Miscommunication or mismatched expectations can create confusion, slow progress, or cause misalignment across teams. For schedulers, communication is both a skill and a mission‑critical responsibility: making sure everyone has the right information, at the right time, in the right format.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Consistency, integrity, and accountability are really important. Treating others the way you want to be treated. And also, making sure that you are treated the way you deserve. It's important to understand that you are not greater or less than anyone else, but you are valuable and should be treated as such.
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