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In my capacity as a technology manager and the assistant group supervisor in the APL Office of
Technology Transfer (OTT), I had the remarkable pleasure of supervising Athena over several
summers and winter breaks. Frankly, my office rarely accepts interns because the position has
proven to be extremely challenging, and in-fact, frustrating for college students and early career
professionals. Despite this trepidation, Athenas persistence and self-confidence persuaded me to
give her a chance. My team and I were quite impressed with her outstanding abilities and the
positive impact she was able to make; further, we received many compliments from others
within the organization who also appreciated her contributions. In light of my experience and
the confirmation of others, I am confident of her capabilities and this recommendation.
JHUAPL is dedicated to solving critical problems of national security and advancing the nation's
vision in research and space science through its work on more than 600 programs serving the
Navy, Air Force, Army, NASA, and numerous other government agencies. The OTT is
responsible for commercializing the solutions and inventions developed at JHUAPL. This effort
can be daunting as the office works with highly technical staff and is expected to understand
nearly all commercial markets and business opportunities. Athenas maturity, confidence,
motivation, and communication skills allowed her to effectively connect with researchers, gather
the information she needed, identify the important attributes of very complex topics, and
subsequently craft documentation and executive summaries in a style appropriate for the
intended lay audience. The quality and content of her summaries were excellent. Athenas
ability to know how best to approach the different situations and make people feel comfortable;
combined with her outstanding dedication, work ethics and organizational skills made her
extremely effective and efficient. She was always prompt in delivering top-notch material that
exceeded expectations. She prepared reports and marketing materials on many diverse topics
including:
o Breathable Microframe Socket System
o Methods and Systems to Implement a Surrogate Head Model
o Release Actuator Employing Components with Different Coefficients of Thermal
Expansion
o Eye PATCH
o Enhanced Mapping and Positioning System for Navigation and Mapping in GPS
Denied Environments
Athena also helped conduct critical research tasks on prospective business partnerships. In
addition to learning and using our normal resources, she regularly looked outside our standard
processes and dug up important, hard to find information that was crucial in our decision
making. Athenas capstone was a complex initiative to gather, analyze, organize and present
data about a critical but outdated program at the Laboratory. Despite the need for discretion, she
required minimal supervision and could be counted on to appropriately seek guidance. Her final
presentation was delivered to senior management and surpassed expectations with the inclusion
of several recommendations for process improvements.
Although very focused and despite the age-gap, Athena was also able to make friends and work
effectively with co-workers, making her a great addition to the team. She showed interest in the
different cultures and experiences of our offices diverse team. Ultimately, I believe it is
Athenas innate thirst for knowledge and desire to be an active contributor that drove her success
during her time working for me. I expect these factors will continue to contribute to her
ongoing accomplishments in each of her endeavors. I have no doubts that anyone working with
her will be exceptionally pleased. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Heather L. Curran
heather.curran1569@gmail.com
(443) 538-1950