Foster’s route into that work combined college with time on site. While completing a construction management and land development degree at Mississippi State University, she took a four-week holiday internship on a Stennis construction project. That became a senior-year schedule of three days a week working at Stennis and the other four attending classes, with hours of driving back to campus. NASA says the work led to a full-time job. [S1]
At Stennis, near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Foster’s quality assurance and engineering work focuses largely on the High Pressure Gas Facility and High Pressure Industrial Water Facility. Her responsibilities put her in contact with the practical details of testing: reviewing preparation sheets, checking operational plans in the field and following processes from initial design through final closeout. Those duties give concrete meaning to the technical knowledge NASA says her hire preserves. [S1]
Foster told NASA that becoming a civil servant carried forward a family legacy. Her father retired from NASA in 2025 after about 20 years at Stennis. Her own 12-year-old son shares aerospace conversations with her, much as she once did with her father. [S1]
Source documents
- Contractor to Civil Servant: NASA Welcomes Kristie Fosterhttps://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/stennis/contractor-to-civil-servant-kristie-foster/