Girl Scouts name new CEO: a rocket scientist

Sylvia Acevedo earned a science badge as a Girl Scout. She became a rocket scientist is now CEO of the Girl Scouts.

Sylvia Acevedo, who earned a science badge as a Girl Scout and later became a rocket scientist and entrepreneur, was appointed Wednesday as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. A top priority, she said, would be to stem a sharp decline in the organization’s membership.

Acevedo had been serving as the interim CEO since last June while the GSUSA conducted an extensive search for a new permanent leader. In the end, the national board decided she was the best choice, depicting her as “a long-time champion for girls’ and women’s causes.”

Acevedo grew up near Las Cruces, New Mexico, and joined a Brownie troop there in the 1960s. She says her Mexican-born mother got help from troop leaders in practicing her English and passing her U.S. citizenship test. The science badge was earned by building and launching a rocket. Says Acevedo, “It completely changed my life.” After graduating from New Mexico State University with an engineering degree in 1979, Acevedo worked as a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and earned a master’s degree at Stanford University. She later worked for several technology-related corporations, served as White House commissioner on the Presidential Initiative for Hispanic Educational Excellence, and became a leading advocate of expanded opportunities for girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

She became a member of GSUSA’s board in 2009.