Making Connections: Barth Among Women Thriving at GSFC [Women to Watch]

When Janet Barth was selected to be chief of the Electrical Engineering Division (EED) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), it shouldn't have been all that surprising. Nobody could dispute that she was highly experienced. Over the years, she had risen through the ranks at the GSFC, from a co-op student in 1976 to manager of the Flight Data Systems and Radiation Effects Branch of the EED from 2005 to 2008. But there were a couple of distinctions. For one thing, she had never been an associate division chief. And, unlike all of the other division heads, she was a woman. "I'm so fortunate that the other division chiefs - all men, of course - were very helpful," she says. "I could always call them to ask for advice."