Nichelle Nichols began her show business career at age 16 as a singer and dancer with Duke Ellington and his band. Adding acting to her repertoire, she was twice nominated for the Sarah Siddons Award for best actress. In 1966 she joined the cast of Star Trek where she embraced her best known role as communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura.

Nichelle was invited to join the board of directors of the National Space Institute and asked to aid in its astronaut recruitment program for the space shuttle project. She embraced the challenge and launched a daunting, national blitz for NASA, recruiting 8,000 of the nation’s best and brightest, including the trailblazing astronauts who became the first African American, Asian and Latino men and women to fly in space.

Nichelle’s efforts changed our world for the better, helping break down barriers and unite us.

Michael Dorn is an American actor and voice artist who is known for his role as the Klingon Worf in the Star Trek franchise. … He also appeared as Worf’s ancestor, Colonel Worf, in the 1991 film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Vivica Anjanetta Fox is an American actress, producer and television host. She began her career with roles on the daytime television soap operas Days of Our Lives and Generations, subsequently shifting to the prime-time slot starring opposite Patti LaBelle, in the NBC sitcom Out All Night.

Maria Ashley Eckstein is an American actress, voice actress, and fashion designer, known to audiences of Blue Collar TV and as the voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Star Wars Forces of Destiny.

George Hosato Takei is an American actor, director, author, and activist. He is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and one episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in the Babylon 5 series. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City.

Pharrell Lanscilo Williams is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. He is a fan of the science fiction series Star Trek, as indicated by his consistent use of the Vulcan salute to signify his label name, Star Trak.

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, television/radio talk show host and a former White House adviser for President Barack Obama.

Eugene Wesley “Rod” Roddenberry Jr. is an American television producer and the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. Rod is the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett and is an executive producer on Star Trek: Discovery.

Dorothy Catherine “D. C.” Fontana is an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original Star Trek franchise and several western television series.

Benjamin Lloyd Crump is an American civil rights attorney and founder of the Tallahassee, Florida-based law firm Ben Crump Law. He is known for his association with the 2012-2013 George Zimmerman case, and for representing the family of Michael Brown, a 17-year-old African-American boy shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri.

David Gerrold is an American science fiction screenwriter and novelist. He wrote the script for the original Star Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles“.

Maxine Moore Waters is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd congressional district since 2013.

John Robert Lewis is an American politician and civil rights leader. He is the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district, serving in his 17th term in the House, having served since 1987, and is the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation.

Martin Luther King III is an American human rights advocate and community activist. He is the oldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

Franklin Story Musgrave, M.D. is an American physician and a retired NASA astronaut. He is a public speaker and consultant to both Disney‘s Imagineering group and Applied Minds in California. In 1996 he became only the second astronaut to fly on six spaceflights, and he is the most formally educated astronaut with six academic degrees.

Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former NASA administrator, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut. A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he became a Marine aviator and test pilot.

Michael Eric Dyson is an academic, author, preacher, and radio host. He is a Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. Dyson has authored or edited more than twenty books dealing with subjects such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marvin Gaye, Nas‘s debut album Illmatic, Bill Cosby, Tupac Shakur, and Hurricane Katrina.

Winston Elliott Scott is a retired United States Navy Captain and former NASA astronaut. He served as a mission specialist on STS-72 in 1996 and STS-87 in 1997 logged a total of 24 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes in space, including three spacewalks totaling 19 hours and 26 minutes. Winston was also a naval pilot and flew helicopters and navy planes.

John Spencer is a pioneer in the field of outer space architecture. He is the founder of the Space Tourism Society (STS) and co-author of the book “Space Tourism—Do You Want to Go?”. He is the senior space science/futurist for the Science and Entertainment Exchange who provides advice on a wide range of science for movie and TV producers, writers and designers. He is also a real estate designer/developer for space-themed entertainment projects and is currently designing a Mars World attraction/resort for Las Vegas.

Charles S. Resnik, M.D., is a Professor of Radiology and Orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is a surviving brother of astronaut Judy Resnik who perished during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

Dr. Kenneth E. Phillips has served as Curator for Aerospace Science at the California Science Center since 1990 and is responsible for creating the vision that shapes the exhibits and programs in aeronautics and space exploration. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy in USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and teaches the Freshman Seminar course on the space shuttle and the public understanding of science.

Eileen Marie Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and a retired United States Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle.

Clarence William Nelson II is an American politician, who served as United States Senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019. In January 1986, he became the second sitting member of Congress to fly in space when he served as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Never one to follow the crowd, Ivor Dawson followed his own path to space education as well as his own approach to teaching it. In 1998, he became director of an experimental space museum in L. A. that featured interactive, full-scale replicas of famous space vehicles. Before the year ended, Ivor launched the Traveling Space Museum with a founding grant from Lockheed-Martin Corp. to bring the space museum to the student.  The Traveling Space Museum has engaged over 800,000 students in 21 years. It has been named the best space education program in California and was the winner of the 2008 “Buzz Aldrin Space Education & Work Force Award presented by Dr. Aldrin himself!

Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp is curator for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in charge of the Museum’s social and cultural dimensions of spaceflight collection. She is the author of Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program which won the 2004 Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature from the American Astronautical Society.

David Knight is a “serial entrepreneur” and founder of technology companies based on his background in multi-spectral sensing and communications, digital audio, messaging, enterprise software and distributed systems. He was an original executive of Ansari XPRIZE, the company that launched the private spaceflight industry and continues to promote STEM education through innovative large-scale projects including his philanthropic work with the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Lori Beth Garver is the former Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was nominated on May 24, 2009, by President Barack Obama, along with Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator and was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on July 15, 2009. She left the position in September 2013 to become General Manager of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Robert B. Sieck joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in 1964 as a Gemini Spacecraft Systems engineer. He served as an Apollo Spacecraft test team project engineer, Shuttle Orbiter test team project engineer, and in 1976 was named the Engineering Manager for the Shuttle Approach and Landing tests at Dryden Flight Research Facility in California. Returning to KSC in 1978, he became the Chief Shuttle Project Engineer for STS-1 through STS-7. He became the first KSC Shuttle Flow Director in 1983, and in February 1984 was appointed Director, Launch and Landing Operations, where he served as Shuttle Launch Director for eleven mission.

Frederick Drew Gregory is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well as former NASA Deputy Administrator. He also served briefly as NASA Acting Administrator in early 2005, covering the period between the departure of Sean O’Keefe and the swearing in of Michael Griffin.

Kathie Scobee Fulgham is the daughter of Challenger astronaut Dick Scobee and June Scobee Rodgers, Ph.D.  She serves on the Astronauts Memorial Foundation Board and has enjoyed a well-rounded career including public relations, special events, writing, editing, media relations, fundraising, marketing and website development.  She has channeled the trauma suffered while witnessing the Challenger accident to help other children of disasters. Her open letter to the children who lost their parent(s) in the 9/11 terrorist attack was printed in newspapers nationwide and beyond.

Kerry Mark Joels grew up as a child actor in New York, voicing the role of “Jimmy” who stowed away in space on the 1958 release The Space Explorers. This piqued his interest in astronomy so he semi-retired from acting to attend New York’s Stuyvesant High School and pursued a career in Physics and Astronomy which eventually led him to work for NASA. During this time he met and befriended Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek, and the rest of the Star Trek original group including Gene Roddenberry. In 1978 he moved from NASA to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum where he produced an orientation film with Nichelle Nichols. He co-wrote the “Space Shuttle Operator’s Manual” for Ballantine Books in 1982 and worked on the White House Young Astronaut Program starting in 1985 and continues to be active in the development of a variety of science fiction television and film properties.

Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen is president of Great Lakes Science Center. Her leadership activities have included the launch of “Cleveland Creates” which was developed to change the community’s manufacturing narrative through STEM education opportunities for diverse middle-school youth and families.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr., Ph.D., is an American aerospace engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, who was the first African American in space.

Eric Deggans is NPR’s first full-time TV critic, crafting stories and commentaries for the network’s shows, such as Morning Edition, Here & Now and All Things Considered. He joined NPR in September 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times newspaper in Florida, where he served as TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. A journalist for more than two decades, he is also the author of “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation”, a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media.