Estella Gillette:
CLASS OF 1963
Jefferson Davis High SchoolClass of 1963
Houston, TX
University of Houston - Clear LakeClass of 1994
Houston, TX
Estella's Story
Life
Edted in September in 2022. After graduating from JDHS, I went to work at a small chemical apparatus company in Houston. Boy, did my JDHS secretarial training pay off! I went to work as a clerk-steno and got a little more pay because I could take shorthand. A year later, after I became a U.S. citizen (born in Mexico), I went to work for the federal government at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It's funny because in our JDHS senior year book the theme was NASA--and there I was, now a NASA employee. I left there after about 1 year, went to work at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, closer to my family home because it was quite a drive to NASA from where we lived. I loved that job, it was very exciting and I learned a lot about people. But, I'd met my husband-to-be (a student engineer from Pennsylvania) at NASA. We were married in 1967 and a few months later, (In July 2022 we celebrated our emerald anniversary., 55 years.) I went back to NASA because my husband was hired as a full-time engineer. Eventually we'd have two sons, now grown--one works in the petro-chemical industry and the other in the aerospace industry, both of them University of Houston grads. At NASA I worked as a secretary, from clerk to executive secretary, then went into human resources work as a personnel assistant assigned to the Astronaut Selections Program. What a treat that job was! Eventually, I would earn a Bachelor's degree in business administration--I was almost 40 by then and went for 9.5 years of night school to get it. By age 48, I got my Master's degree in human resource management, another 4 years of night school. Both of these degrees are from UH Clear Lake. By that time, I'd been promoted to Director of Equal Opportunity Programs, a senior staff position at NASA Johnson Space Center, and in that position I was a member of the Astronaut Selections Board, one of many highlights of my NASA career. I started missing not being in school, so I went back to school for a doctorate degree, (I went parttime to college for 24 years.) By the time I was age 60, my husband and I decided it was time to retire from NASA, so we did in January 2006. We had a combined total of 84 years of federal service. We took our first cru...Expand for more
ise right after retirement and then another one shortly there after and we love cruising! I've stayed in touch with JDHS over the last several years, spoke a couple of times to the students there, stayed in touch with a couple of classmates, I joined the Alumni Association. I heard Congressman Gene Green, another JDHS graduate, speaking at local activities and he said that JDHS taught him perserverance--I couldn't agree more! It was partly my JDHS foundation that made my professional life and subsequently my personal life so great! Thanks, JDHS, Miss Mims, Mrs. Sanderson, Mr. Sadler, Mr. Gomez, and especially Mrs. Voss and Mrs. Tipton, and the friends I made while at JDHS!
On July 31, 2012, I defended my dissertation at the George Washington University, Washington, DC, and completed the requirements for Doctor of Education! I am now Dr. Estella Hernandez Gillette! I am active (President) in the NASA Alumni League (NAL), an organization of 600+ NASA retired civil servants, and am enjoying that, along with my part-time consulting work. JDHAA and NAL have "partnered" so that NAL is sponsoring the NAL STEM scholarship every year for students who have declared a STEM major for college.
From the summer of 2014 thru the fal of 2020. I taught at the University of Houston main and Sugarland, campuses. Ii taught on the College of Technology, Human Resource Deelopmemt degree program. I loved teaching but 2020 and COVID really tired me out, I was 75 years old when i resigned and there are other things I want to do while I still can.
In 2017, i was selected as one of 3 University of Houston Clear Lake Distinguished Alumni. In October 2018, I was selected as one of 8 JDHS Distinguished Alumni In May 2019, I was interviewed by the LA Times for its Women of Apollo series, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing. I was a secretary at NASA, called the Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) during that time. You can google my name plus Women of Apollo, I couldn't post the link! In 2020 I received the Luminary Award from te Hispanic Engineering National Achievement Award Conferece for my work as a mentor throughout the years. My next project is to write a book or two, while I still can!
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