NASA has let go of its Caribbean employees and discontinued all positions tied to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative, following an executive order from Donald Trump.
This decision comes shortly after Rose Ferreira shared a post about changes made to the NASA website. Her article detailed her journey from growing up in poverty and experiencing homelessness to achieving academic success and securing a position as a NASA intern and later a full-time employee.
In January, features related to DEIA were removed from the NASA site after administrator Janet Petro began to align with new regulations from the White House, which mandated the closure of DEIA-related offices and programs.
After recovering from pneumonia, Ferreira expressed her sorrow on social media, noting, “Well, my bio was just removed from the NASA site due to an order that came out to remove the one about the women in STEM.”
She added, “I’ve only been on the thread for about a year, so many people here might not know about NASA’s stories of love for the moon, my experiences with poverty, and how I was homeless in the States, along with my journey at NASA.”
Her post gained considerable traction, amassing over 86,000 likes and being shared more than 11,000 times. The conversation about Ferreira’s experiences also brought attention to her article on the NASA site, which had been removed but, surprisingly, resurfaced when the online community rallied around her story. Despite the situation, an official NASA representative reached out to Ferreira, although she was left without clarity on the matter.
Due to her illness, Ferreira couldn’t return to her job for several weeks and ultimately rejoined the office on Monday, February 24th. On Wednesday—just 20 days post her announcement regarding the removal of her NASA profile—she was terminated.
Ferreira sensed the trouble right away when she attended her one-on-one meeting with her supervisor, noticing an HR representative lurking in the background. She was informed, effectively immediately, that she had failed to fulfill her job responsibilities.
“As I started to say something, she just waved me off and insisted, ‘No, we haven’t done that,'” Ferreira recalled. “I can still hear their words ringing in my head. They didn’t even allow me to speak in my own meeting,” she reflected.
In the weeks following her dismissal, not much has changed at NASA. Reports of bullying related to a colleague’s Pride Display have surfaced, along with calls for NASA officials to remove LGBTQI+ symbols from their work areas.
