PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Jimyse Lyn Brown
Executive Director, Moonshot Museum

Jimyse Brown says she got her position at Pittsburgh’s Moonshot Museum by chasing her skills instead of a title.

She entered college as a student-athlete, worked as a traditional school teacher and then became director of Moonshot, Pennsylvania’s first space museum; it’s operated by the Astrobotic Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the local robotics company that’s building a lunar lander scheduled to head to the moon next year.

Now she and her team are able to show young learners that space isn’t just for astronauts — they can make a difference no matter what profession they choose.

“We show students that they don’t have to choose an industry over their passions. They can apply their passions to this industry,” she says.

Heading a fairly new entity that opened in the Chateau neighborhood in 2022, Brown says, “we pay homage to the past, we present the present and focus on the future.”