Today, Data Analytics Engineering (DAEN) alum Pamela S. Wood is a Senior Project Leader in the Vehicle Autonomy and System Trust Department at The Aerospace Corporation. Her work bridges autonomy, robotics, and AI systems engineering. But her path to this role was anything but straight. Despite health crises, a car accident, and personal tragedy, Wood proved that grit, curiosity, and the right graduate program can transform a career.
Raised in a small South Carolina town, Wood graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in industrial and systems engineering and launched into management followed by management consulting. By age 24, she was managing a team of 34 people.
“I started my career backwards, and now I’m working my way back forward,” Wood reflected. Selected for Target’s corporate executive leadership program straight out of college, she seemed destined for success—until an undiagnosed health issue forced a pivot into an entry-level engineering role. Then came another setback: a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury (TBI) , making communication and work a daily struggle.
“Every move in my career has been the result of a traumatic event,” she said. Recovery led her to cost estimating—a slower-paced role that introduced her to the power of data analytics. When her company offered to sponsor data analytics studies, Wood jumped in. She became one of the first students in George Mason’s DAEN program, balancing recovery with courses and full-time work. The program proved transformative.
“The program did an amazing job at being multidisciplinary,” Wood said. “The balance between statistics, algorithmic core, high performance computing, and data visualization was very holistic.”
Her capstone professor, Associate Professor Jim Baldo, witnessed her growth firsthand. “Dr. Baldo got to see me at the end of my TBI journey and got to see me grow out of it. It was very special,” Wood recalled.
Unfortunately, personal challenges didn’t stop there. “I got married during the program, and at the end of it he [her husband] got diagnosed with end-of-life, stage-four cancer. He passed away about six months after I graduated,” Wood shared. “It was a good time to start over.”
Start over she did. At The Aerospace Corporation, Wood brought immediate value. “I brought things from my master’s degree that I was able to do on day one,” she said. Her work now focuses on integrating AI with robotic and autonomous systems. “AI doesn’t give you anything until you put it in a system,” she explained. “It’s like having wheels for your car sitting in the garage.”
Wood’s advice for those considering a master’s in data analytics engineering is simple, though difficult: Persist. “Stay humble, be a sponge, and connect,” she said, adding, “Don’t just stop when you get confused. You need experience in finding out how what you’re doing is related to other things. Society is progressing toward more interdisciplinary engineering.”
Wood’s career trajectory reflects the adaptability and perseverance that George Mason fosters in its students. The DAEN program equipped her with the technical depth and interdisciplinary skills needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving data-driven landscape.
“If you’re looking to be in a more data-driven decision-making capacity, the data analytics program at Mason is excellent,” she said.