Over 600 people have been to space and accomplished QUEST alumnus Chris Huie-Spence (Cohort 15) is one of them! This month, QUESTPress had the pleasure of interviewing astronaut and aerospace engineer Huie-Spence, who is currently a Senior Manager of Business Insights at Virgin Galactic. He supports commercial strategy and corporate development, spanning the gap between engineering and business while enabling the executive leadership team to make data-informed decisions. We discussed everything from his passion for increasing Black representation in aerospace and leadership to his trip to Space.

Huie-Spence with Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson

Huie-Spence, a member of QUEST Cohort 15, graduated from UMD in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. While at UMD, he participated in the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center as part of the National Science Foundation’s LSAMP Undergraduate Research Program. He was inspired to pursue a degree in aerospace because he grew up obsessed with flying machines and understanding how things work. He also loved Star Trek which seeded his imagination for what the future could be like: a future that he could help create. Before joining Virgin Galactic, he worked at Bell Flight Engineering on various rotorcraft programs and as a simulation engineer developing flight crew training simulators. When he joined Virgin Galactic in 2016, he led the Flight Sciences External Loads Engineering discipline for six years. He is very familiar with Spaceship VSS Unity and Mothership VMS Eve and worked on nearly every component of the Spaceship and mothership design. He describes the coolest experience of his career being his trip to space! He served as a mission specialist on Unity 25, Virgin Galactic’s final test flight of Spaceship Unity, where they evaluated and recommended improvements to the customer experience before the Spaceship entered commercial service. He said the trip was “the coolest and most extreme experience… professional or otherwise. The whole experience is beautifully suspenseful, thrilling beyond your wildest dreams, and the most powerful and humbling human experience anyone can have.” He is motivated to make space travel accessible for more people to experience. 

Huie-Spence on his spaceflight

Huie-Spence has done a lot during his career and has found that his greatest accomplishments span from technical accomplishments to leadership accomplishments. While working at Bell Labs, he derived the flight control kinematic equations for the Bell V-280 tiltrotor flight control computers that will become the future of Army aviation and certified Bell’s first full-motion pilot training simulator with Spain’s European Aviation Safety Agency. As a leader, he is proud of helping to establish Virgin Galactic’s Flight Sciences Department where he led different engineering disciplines, recruited talent, established both best practices and engineering processes. He is dedicated to increasing Black representation in the aerospace field and leadership, which is why he co-founded the Black Leaders in Aerospace Scholarship & Training (BLAST) Program. He is also a member of the Clark School’s Early Career Distinguished Alumni (ECDA)!

Huie-Spence with BLAST Scholars at their leadership summit

QUEST has had an important impact on Huie-Spence, complimenting his engineering background to become a better problem solver. QUEST has taught him the importance of focusing and understanding a problem first before just jumping in. The concepts of idealized design help him approach every problem, professionally and personally. QUEST also helped immensely with honing his communication skills, allowing him to communicate technical information with a non-technical audience. Specifically, he said Blue Ocean thinking was one of his favorite takeaways from QUEST as it provides a framework for innovation and invention. He wants future QUESTees to focus on the fundamentals of their chosen industry and never stop learning. Huie-Spence believes QUEST is a great preparation for the real world because engineering and technology are fueling a majority of the growth in business. He wants students to see how they can use the principles of QUEST to design their career and their life. Thanks to Chris for a great interview. We wish you all the best!

QUEST alumni continue to amaze us with their accomplishments and endeavors. This month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Coraggio, a member of Cohort 16, who has been very busy since graduating from Maryland in 2011 with his bachelor’s in Information Systems and Marketing. Most recently, he is the founder and principal coach of Potencia, an organizational coaching practice. 

Chris Coraggio

After graduating from Maryland, Coraggio joined Teach for America then continued his education by getting a Masters in Education and going to Spain to receive a bilingual (Spanish) MBA. He thought he wanted to enter the HR world so he found a job with Citi in HR but wasn’t fully satisfied with it. He decided to take some time off traveling in Asia and discovered he wanted to incorporate education into his future career, wanted a career that felt fulfilling, and had an entrepreneurial itch that led him to obtain a certification in Executive Coaching and Leadership and start Potencia. He’s proud of pushing past any hesitancy and bringing his ideas to life. “I’ve historically just been really hesitant to put myself and my ideas out there for fear of what others think of me. And over and over again, I’ve pushed past fear to get this company to fruition,” he shared.

Coraggio is a full-time consultant now with SOL Digital but started Potencia as a side gig. He finds that the most rewarding part of coaching is seeing adults have their “aha” moments when they see themselves from a new perspective. “As a former teacher, I remember all the wonderful “aha” moments my students had in my math class,” said Coraggio. “Those “ahas” were really easy to come by, because students were learning new mathematical concepts, and it was pretty natural for them to learn to insights. With adults, it’s harder work to have somebody see themselves or a situation from a new perspective. So the “aha” moments are really special.”

He described a recent win where his coaching allowed a friend to discover a positive insight about why they were leaving their current city. The insight that leaving was moving forward led the friend to change his perspective on what’s up next. He thanks QUEST for instilling in him the importance of networking and community and his attitude towards quality and continuous improvement. He finds himself to be a lifelong learner and always striving to be a better coach. He also remembers “QUEST legends” like Dr. Suarez and Dr. Bailey teaching him to design for the future he wants and trust his instincts.

For anyone interested in coaching check out Potencia’s website here where Coraggio blogs about a variety of topics. He is also offering free coaching office hours to QUEST alumni and students on Wednesdays 4-6pm and Fridays 3-5pm now through January.