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Matthew Hayes is a DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) project analyst at NASA Langley Research Center. His career at Langley spans 16 years, starting in the model shop working on wind tunnel models and lunar rover projects. From there, Hayes moved to the Electronic Systems Branch and contributed to the SAGE III mission to the International Space Station. Hayes also worked with NASA’s quiet X-59 supersonic research aircraft before assuming his current position. As a DEIA Project Analyst, Hayes supports the center in identifying gaps and building a culture, environment, systems and processes where everyone has a fair opportunity to grow.
Who or what inspired you to choose your career and why?
That’s a double answer. On the one hand, I was just a curious kid and I had the feeling and belief that the world was worth exploring. I wanted to be a marine biologist. I wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to study plants and rocks. It was all very fascinating to me, so NASA fit into that bucket of exploration and curiosity. It wasn’t specifically NASA, but it was exploration.
Then the other extreme is growing up as kids and we didn’t have a lot of financial options. NASA had an apprentice program. The Apprenticeship Program actually gave me the opportunity to get out of high school, have a career path, gain work experience, and get some education. A guy who already worked here approached my mom and said, “Hey, I know you have a son who just finished high school. What are you doing?” and shared that NASA was reopening its Trainee Program. He encouraged me to apply. That conversation is how I ended up here. It aligned me toward where I really wanted to be, because I just wanted to see what the world was like and the universe, regardless.
What do you find most rewarding about working with NASA?
Exposure to new ideas and the ability to explore! Every day there is a reason to be excited and enthusiastic about the work you are doing, the people you are doing it with, and where you are doing it. There is cutting-edge technology, world-renowned opinion leaders, and projects that are exploring the history of the universe. NASA will keep you on your toes, that’s for sure!
Outside of that, two big things: the people, which I already mentioned. My career would not be what it was without the relationships I have built along the journey. People who have simply been curious about me, who have asked me questions, who have exposed me to different places, who have pulled up a chair to tables where I didn’t have to be alone in order to listen, learn and invite. It took me places, it exposed me to different centers, to different people.
Also, “the meatball.” The meatball is an inescapable logo that, wherever you are, inspires hope. The ability to have that and get behind it and pull it off is always exciting.
What do you like to do outside of work?
The other day I was on a call and they said, “Describe yourself in three words.” Mine were “curiosity, spirituality and adventure.” That is why I have enjoyed my career because as a person I have always liked exploration and adventure. NASA fits me, instead of me fitting NASA.
Outside the doors, nothing changes. I like to find things to do, places to go. I love finding moments. Take photographs or find snapshots of life. Whether it’s on a beach or in a park or holding a pineapple next to a pineapple and just seeing the similarities between creation and existence.
I like to have fun! I can skate. I like to cook. I am a great cook. I hate doing dishes though! And I’m a mediocre bowler.
What advice would you give to young people who might be interested in pursuing a career at NASA?
Do it but have the right perspective. Sometimes people see NASA as a finish line or an achievement, but that has never been what NASA represents. We represent a launching pad. We have the resources and the ability to put things together and then film them in places we’ve never been, and it’s no different than a race.
I started (at NASA) in my teens, but we also have people who join the team mid- or late-career. People who are making the transition to find new opportunities. So no matter where they are, this is an environment that is fertile soil for the right seeds. So if you come here, you have the ability to not only be planted in an environment, but also to grow and see what you’re made of.
How do your background and heritage contribute to your perspective and approach in your role at NASA?
Largely because the work I do now is about diversity and inclusion. Diversity means “many pieces.” Whether it’s the workforce: there are a lot of people from different backgrounds. Whether it’s the missions: we have many projects that study many things. Or whether it’s exploration: we will go to many places we have never been.
My background is no different from our mission forward. I am a black, Palestinian boy from a low-income neighborhood whose parents struggled with drugs. I have lived on both coasts of the country and have been exposed to multiple cultures and environments. My parents have very different origins. My mother is a Christian. My father is Muslim. All that exposure to different pieces has given me the ability to step back and simply look at a plate before diving into it. That has allowed me to see the value of the little things. Sometimes, even personally, I’ve encountered things in conversations or scenarios where I feel like I can contribute, but someone else didn’t see my value, so I didn’t give my all in that space. But because of my background, I know how valuable it is to listen to someone’s opinion or thought or when their body language changes, and not just ignore it.
That has allowed me to be effective in my work because a lot of what I do now is based on the relationships I’ve built and the people I’ve gotten to know. I talk about it often: the advantages of growing up disadvantaged. Sometimes we can think of it as an obstacle or obstacle. For me, I have always considered the difficulties of my early education as blessings. I learned resilience. I learned to overcome. I learned solution orientation. I learned mental agility. I learned all of these things because of my background, now that I’m in the workforce, while working to accomplish a mission, these are all skills that are extremely important.
The 2024 theme for Black History Month is “African Americans and the Arts,” encompassing the many impacts African Americans have had on the visual arts, music, cultural movements, and more. How have the arts played a role in your life?
The arts saved my life. It started in my teens, writing and exposing me to poetry. I remember seeing this group of young people in New York and they performed poems telling stories about themselves that related to me in a very strong way. I thought I was alone until that moment and then I realized that other people feel things too. It was that exposure to poetry that made me start doing my own self-reflection and led me to write myself. Then, it was that writing that allowed me to begin to find my voice. To start overcoming my anxiety. Don’t get overwhelmed and overthink everything. Get it out of my mind and onto a page. The more I did that, year after year, poem after poem after poem, I began to learn how to craft and curate my words and how to become a better communicator. How to value the words I spoke and not use words, language and communication frivolously.
For me, the arts are who I am, who I am. It’s what allows me to connect with the people who now work at NASA and passionately communicate our message to the students we see. It allows me to help get something out of an engineer who may naturally feel introverted, but now I know how to get something out of him and remind him of who he is. Anything you can see as “good at a job” comes from the pain of poetry, the arts, and everything that now drives me to be where I am today.
