Lori Arnett: Driving Digital Transformation at NASA with Big Dreams and Small Steps
Lori Arnett approaches her work at NASA with a simple yet effective motto: think big, start small, act fast. As the Associate Director for Digital Transformation for the Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities (AETC) within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), Lori plays a crucial role in managing the capability portfolio for wind tunnels across the agency. Her ambitious mindset and relentless drive for progress make her a formidable force in championing digital transformation at NASA.
Lori’s approach to achieving significant goals and true transformation at NASA begins with small, measurable steps. This strategy has significantly enhanced the agency’s ability to deliver on its aerospace missions. Following the release of AETC’s strategic plan in June 2022, Lori and her team established a data governance board and developed a strategy for quantifying and measuring success. This initiative has positioned her mission directorate to achieve its goals on schedule.
Her team has successfully defined and captured data on various aspects such as customer data, service quality, reliability, timeliness, and operational and maintenance costs for the wind tunnels. This effort has resulted in the creation of a quantifiable performance metric. Additionally, they have captured data on the tunnels’ mission relevancy, future demand, test usage, adaptability, and uniqueness, leading to a quantifiable value metric. These metrics together provide a real-time view of progress toward agency goals, accessible to everyone from headquarters program managers to customers and wind tunnel operators. Other NASA capability portfolios have adopted this construct, further demonstrating its value.
By making various data available with access controls, Lori and her team aim for agency-wide transparency and standardization. They created the first-ever integrated view of availability and access data for NASA’s wind tunnels and increased data discoverability by expanding the ARMD Test Data Portal to include ground test data in addition to flight data. Currently, her team is working to integrate ground and flight test data with computational data sets, a feat that would provide unprecedented data integration and interoperability, enabling future missions.
To achieve such quick turnarounds with minimal budget requirements, the team partnered with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to leverage existing enterprise-wide services while building the data application ADAPT (AETC Data & Analytics Portfolio Transformation). “I’m all about leveraging and collaborating. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” says Lori. Her act-fast mentality drives her toward interoperable architectures, common tools, and inclusive teaming, leveraging existing solutions to help her directorate achieve increasingly complex missions. In return, Lori embraces any opportunity to share her work and enable other teams in their digital transformation journeys. “If anything I do can help somebody else, please reuse it. I don’t do this only for my organization. I’m doing this for the greater good of NASA and for this nation.”
Lori believes that NASA’s ability to drive innovation hinges on how the agency maximizes the impact of its data, specifically in achieving FAIRUST principles. By 2032, AETC aims for 100% of its strategic data assets to be FAIRUST (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable, Understandable, Secure, and Trustworthy). The strategic plan also outlines requirements for a 50% return on investment; to achieve this, Lori and her team developed a construct for quantifying ROI that they shared with multiple other teams, including the Digital Transformation Working Group. By creating ways of defining performance and value, Lori drives strategic investments and data-informed business outcomes.
Her motivation for delivering quantifiable value stems from her years of experience in the aerospace industry. Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, not far from Glenn Research Center (GRC), Lori knew from a young age that she wanted to become an aerospace engineer. She pursued an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Before joining NASA as a test engineer at GRC in 2007 and later as a civil servant in 2010, she spent ten years designing aerospace products and technologies. Her background influences her commitment to freeing up time for the working level through digital transformation solutions. When asked what she enjoys most about working with Digital Transformation, Lori says, “For me, it’s all about sharing and collaborating so we can innovate for the benefit of all.” She recognizes that large-scale transformation requires many smaller parts contributing their diverse skillsets to the common goal. Of her various responsibilities and achievements, this is what excites and motivates her to continue impacting the agency as a digital transformer. “I just love collaborating with others that have this same mindset.”
In summary, Lori Arnett’s work at NASA exemplifies how a strategic, data-driven approach can lead to significant advancements in aerospace missions. By thinking big, starting small, and acting fast, she has managed to create a framework that not only benefits her directorate but also holds the potential to drive innovation across the entire agency. Her commitment to collaboration and sharing resources underscores her dedication to the greater good of NASA and the nation. Lori’s journey from a young aerospace enthusiast to a key player in NASA’s digital transformation is a testament to the power of passion, strategy, and teamwork in achieving extraordinary goals.
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