Dorothy Vaughan got her start in computer science during World War II, when she was hired by NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1943. She used her prowess as a human computer to contribute to a number of wartime efforts.

After the war, in 1949, she was promoted to lead the West Computing department, a group of African American women computers, and was the first African American woman appointed to a managerial role at NACA. She later joined the Analysis and Computation Division, where she became a skilled FORTRAN programmer and worked to prop up other women in the field.