“‘Imagine next’ means dreaming big—for yourself and for Parsons. And not just dreaming but taking steps to make it happen,” says Heidi Wright, vice president for our Space Solutions group. She explains that as a leader herself, this means empowering her colleagues to have a say in the future, and for all employees, this means taking the initiative to change the course of the future for the better.
Heidi came to us when we acquired Braxton Science and Technology Group, back in 2020. Though any acquisition comes with challenges, Heidi and her team are excited every day by the myriad opportunities to innovate. Heidi, who grew up as a self-described Air Force brat, has always been interested in space. “I had a variety of internships with different focuses, like astrobiology and calibrating instrumentation for the Mars Curiosity Rover at NASA, experimental aircraft at NASA, unmanned underwater vehicles with the Navy, and once I graduated, I focused on providing support to the Missile Defense Agency, the intel community, and finally ended up in a space-focused job with Braxton,” shares Heidi.
Joining Parsons has given Heidi and her Braxton colleagues access to more people with different backgrounds than they had as part of a small business, as well as access to technologies and customers that were previously out of reach. According to Heidi, this has led to more creativity, and having additional resources has strengthened the shared mission of the space industry across the company. “I’m sharing my excitement with people who maybe haven’t understood the importance of space in the past. It’s one thing to show up for work as an engineer or a business developer, but if you’re in pricing, or procurement, or communications, it’s so exciting to explain the impact they are having on the space industry too. We’re truly a team here, and we all play a part in changing the future of the space industry by offering the most valuable technologies and solutions to our customers.”
One of the ways Heidi and her team have cross-collaborated is by working with the people in our federal infrastructure business to leverage their expertise in construction on new bids. She’s also looking forward to being a part of our Innovation Council, which connects and enables the entire company to provide resources and develop solutions that tackle the most crucial issues our customers face today and anticipate for the future.
Collaboration is so beneficial because it takes advantage of our biggest differentiator as a company, which is, according to Heidi, our people. When she was with Braxton, Heidi knew she was working with the best and the brightest in the space industry, and now that she’s joined Parsons, she’s continuously impressed by the diversity in skill set and knowledge comprehensiveness our employees offer. “There’s always someone who knows something about any topic we ask about. The technological camaraderie is fantastic, and when we have a need for a certain type of expertise or functional staff with specific experience, we’re able to find someone within the company who does that,” says Heidi.
And beyond all that technical knowhow is the attitude our people bring to work every day. Heidi has experienced firsthand how each of us is empowered to be our true selves, to think differently, to focus on what matters to us both professionally and personally, and to push ourselves to grow and achieve more than we ever thought we were capable of. Within her Space Solutions group, Heidi poses the question “How do you know what you can achieve if you don’t push the envelope on what you think you can do?” That question has only one answer: you don’t. And it’s because we know both the important questions and the answers that we’re able to imagine—and deliver—what’s next.