Sylvia Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo
Chief Executive Officer
Girl Scouts of the USA

 
Sylvia Acevedo is an engineer, rocket scientist, tech entrepreneur, and the CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. She began her career as a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she created algorithms and analyzed data from Voyager 2’s spacecraft flyby of Jupiter and two of its moons, Io and Europa. She went on to work as an engineer and executive at Apple, Dell, Autodesk, and IBM.
 
Sylvia Acevedo was appointed CEO in May 2017, coming full circle from her youth as a Girl Scout in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Through Girl Scouts, Sylvia discovered her passion for space, science, and math. Her interest in STEM subjects would lead her to a career as a rocket scientist, engineer, technology executive, and award-winning STEM entrepreneur.
 
Sylvia has championed girls in STEM, the outdoors, entrepreneurship, and leadership. In May 2017, she directed the largest rollout of merit badges in nearly a decade. In total, 39 of the 47 new offerings are in STEM subjects, including weather-pattern analysis, space science, robotics, and cybersecurity. Twenty-three of the badges are currently available, while the other 24 will be rolled out in summer 2019.
 
A strong civic and education leader, Sylvia understands the role education plays in creating opportunities for children and developing the workforce of the future. She was one of the first Hispanic students, male or female, to earn a graduate engineering degree from Stanford University—an MS in industrial engineering—and she holds a bachelor of science degree with honors in industrial engineering from New Mexico State University.
 
Sylvia has been recognized widely for her accomplishments in business and education, and for her work to bring more girls into the STEM pipeline. In 2018 she was named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” as well as “Cybersecurity Person of the Year” by Cybersecurity Ventures. Forbes named her as one of America’s Top 50 Women in Tech, and in 2019 InStyle magazine placed her at number seven on its list of “Women Who Are Changing the World.”
 
Sylvia is the author of Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist, a memoir for middle school students that inspires readers to live the lives of their dreams.

How Cookies and Rockets Changed My Life – Girl Scouts and STEM

Sylvia Acevedo0240 views
I was named CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA in 2017. It’s truly an honor to lead this organization that made such an impact on my life and on the lives of 50 million alums across the country and the world. In 2018, research showed that less than one percent of Silicon Valley leadership was Latina. So how did I get to be one of those leaders? What in my life prepared me with the courage and confidence to take on leadership roles and thrive?
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