Dana Bolles

Dana Bolles is an American spaceflight engineer and advocate for those with disabilities in STEM. She has worked at NASA since 1995 in a variety of fields. She is also an ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science's If/then initiative.^[1]

Bolles was born without arms or legs.^[2] She has stated that she became interested in visiting space at an early age since it would allow her to move without the assistance of her wheelchair.^{[3] [4]}

She credited teachers who accepted her in mainstream classrooms as very important to setting her on a path for success in her chosen career.^{[5] [6]}

Bolles earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Long Beach in 1993,^[4] and has a master's degree in rehabilitation engineering and technology from San Francisco State University.^[7]

Bolles started working at NASA in 1995 as an engineer in regulatory compliance, including work on environmental regulations.^[8] This later expanded to work in protecting humans in outer space and scientific communications.^[3]

She also volunteers as an advocate for women,^[9] people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT community. Her advocacy has a particular focus on the challenges that people with disabilities encounter in their lives,^[4] and has spoken about the stereotypes they often face, mentioning that people tend to respond the most to disability compared to other intersectionalities.^[8]

In 2021 Bolles joined a group of people with physical disabilities in a zero gravity parabolic flight.^{[10] [11]}

Bolles was one of the women depicted in the Smithsonian Institution's 2022 exhibit spotlighting women in STEM.^[12]

• NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal (2014)^[13]

• Interview, Gravity Assist: Breaking Barriers, with Dana Bolles

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American disability rights activists
• Living people
• California State University, Long Beach alumni
• San Francisco State University alumni
• American mechanical engineers
• American scientists with disabilities
• American wheelchair users
• NASA people
• American activists with disabilities
• 21st-century American engineers
• 21st-century American women scientists
• 20th-century American engineers
• American women engineers
• Women mechanical engineers

• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Year of birth missing (living people)