Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Camille Wardrop Alleyne immigrated to the United States when she was just 17. She went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Washington D.C. and Florida before joining NASA.

During her trailblazing career at the space agency, Alleyne has led NASA’s lunar commercialization efforts. She currently oversees the organization’s sustainability of space commercialization efforts and recently served as associate program scientist for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Alleyne has received numerous awards. Trinidad and Tobago named her one of the Caribbean’s icons in science and technology. Using her “star power” to inspire young women in 2007, Alleyne established the Brightest Stars Foundation, dedicated to educating girls in math and science.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Space Mission in 2019, the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic supported Alleyne’s trip to Bishkek to engage with youth, young inventors, women in STEM, and Kyrgyzstani researchers.

Alleyne shared her experience on past and current NASA programs and met with girls and women interested in careers in STEM. She also conducted a workshop “Women in STEM” for young people at the American Corner in Bishkek, and met with young inventors from the Academy Altyn Tuyun and with the Kloop-supported Satellite Girls.

During the event at the satellite-building school, she held a workshop to discuss their plans to assemble and launch the first satellite in Kyrgyzstan. With U.S. Embassy support, Alleyne conducted four virtual workshops for these girls from March to June 2019. During these workshops, the girls learned the basics of engineering and satellite-building, including theoretical knowledge about receiving and transmitting data and testing procedures before the launch.

Alleyne also gave a press conference, where she shared information about her experience with NASA programs and the role of women in space. On the same day she had a networking meeting with local researchers from the National Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Education and Science, Central-Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences, and researchers from various institutions of higher education.