A Canadian-born American research scientist and long-time employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who became the first African-American woman to achieve a pioneering position on a space mission, working first with NASA’s Cassini mission to Jupiter then with the international Rosetta project. In 1993, the University of Michigan named her its Woman of the Year. Alexander was an advocate for empowering young women to take up careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.