Session 1

Sheri Klug Boonstra is the Principal Investigator (PI) of NASA’s Lucy Student Pipeline and Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) Program – NASA’s Lucy Asteroid Mission Student Collaboration at Arizona State University and with Regents Professor Dr. Phil Christensen, is the cofounder/co-instructor for the ASU Space Works Program. Both programs help science and engineering students gain and apply relevant workforce skills and practices that lead to proficiencies that are valued by NASA and the space-based exploration ecosystem.
Klug Boonstra has more than 25 years of experience in creating and implementing national NASA STEM education and workforce development programs that stretch vertically from pre-college to workforce including: PI for NASA’s largest undergraduate internship program (USRP) annually placing over 300+ science and engineering students in immersive projects nationally across all 10 NASA centers; Director of the Mars Education Program which produced and implemented NASA’s award-winning Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP). MSIP engaged more than 80,000 elementary through early college students working in teams using ASU’s THEMIS camera onboard the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft to conduct authentic research on Mars. She has worked on multiple NASA mission projects including Mars Odyssey, Mars Exploration Rovers, Lucy Asteroid Mission, Mars Sample Return, Lunar reconnaissance Orbiter, and Astrobiology projects.
In October 2023, the L'SPACE NASA Proposal Writing and Evaluation Experience (NPWEE) Academy under the direction of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate was selected to receive the "Excellence in 3G Diversity" Award from the International Astronautical Federation. In 2021, the Lucy Mission Team honored her by naming Asteroid 8631 SHERIKBOONSTRA for her work in leading the L'SPACE Program. In December of 2020, Klug Boonstra was selected to receive the "Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education" award from the American Geophysical Union. In addition, Klug Boonstra has served on the AAAS Science in the Classroom Advisory Council, spent 3 years as the education lead of the planetary section for the American Geophysical Union, and was chosen to serve on the NASA Solar System Exploration Subcommittee at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC from 2002 – 2005.
She is a veteran of 100+ regional, national, and international STEM education presentations and publications and has been instrumental as a PI or Co-I in raising more than $54 million dollars in grant money for STEM education programs.