Our Instructors
Ann P. Over
Ms. Ann Over is a senior aerospace engineer and program leader with 36 years of experience at NASA, spanning mission design, flight hardware development, and large-scale program management. Her career includes leadership roles on Space Shuttle payloads, International Space Station technology missions, and NASA’s Artemis Orion program. Ann brings deep insight into managing complex, high-risk engineering programs and translating lessons learned into practical guidance for engineering teams.
Ann began her NASA career at the Glenn Research Center after earning a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1983. Early in her career, she designed interplanetary and Earth-orbit trajectories before transitioning into project and program management roles supporting spaceflight missions.
As a project manager, Ann led teams of more than 200 engineers, scientists, and technicians on multiple fast-paced and technically demanding flight projects. Her teams designed and manufactured at NASA Glenn the largest Spacelab payload ever flown on the Space Shuttle—exceeding one metric ton—which flew twice in 1997. The payload operated under extreme pressure and temperature conditions to safely study combustion phenomena in microgravity. In 2003, the system was refurbished and expanded to enable additional scientific research and was manifested on the final flight of Space Shuttle Columbia.
Ann also managed a communications technology flight project developed at NASA Glenn that was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the International Space Station in 2012. The mission successfully operated through 2019 and required integration of new software-defined radios and more than one million lines of flight software under aggressive schedules.
In the latter part of her career, Ann served at NASA Headquarters, supporting Space Shuttle manifest planning and science payload integration, and held Division Chief–level leadership roles overseeing spaceflight combustion projects, exploration technology for Moon and Mars missions, and planetary and Earth science programs.
Ann concluded her NASA career as Deputy Program Manager for the Artemis Orion European Service Module (ESM). In this role, she helped lead propulsion system refurbishment and re-flight efforts, oversaw the development of a full-scale propulsion testbed, and led multiple “tiger teams” to resolve critical development issues with engines and valves. The Artemis I mission successfully launched and completed an uncrewed mission to the Moon and back in late 2022, with propulsion system performance exceeding expectations.
Throughout her career, Ann mentored engineers and project managers, contributed to advancing multiple spaceflight technologies, and developed leadership practices grounded in real-world experience managing complex engineering systems.
She is married to Randy Over, has three children and three grandchildren.
Honors and Awards
2024 AIAA Associate Fellow
2022 Artemis I Orion Individual Award
2018 American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award (for extraordinary achievements and contributions to the advancement of space flight and space exploration)
2012 Senior/Expert Level Project Manager for Federal Acquisitions. Certification
2012 NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
2006 NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2006)
1990-2019 23 NASA Honor Awards for Teamwork, Management, and Special Activities
1997 Silver Snoopy Award
In 1991 Randy accepted the position of Safety-Service Director at a Cleveland, Ohio suburb, moving from private consulting into a politically appointed position and becoming the first engineer in the City’s history to hold that position. It’s been said (by engineers) that life is really an engineering effort, Randy applied engineering principles to City operations and learned to communicate the value of engineering to non-engineers. It was also a time to learn how to navigate a political world.
In 1994, Randy accepted the position of District Construction Engineer (DCE) for the Ohio DOT, District 12 (Cleveland Metro) responsible for all Federal Highway (FHWA) and State funded highway and bridge construction projects. With the Ohio DOT reorganizing and significantly downsizing, he led his engineering team to achieve a clearer focus on the importance of engineering, the contract, specifications, and standards.
With the Ohio DOT reorganization in motion, Randy was appointed and served from 1994 to 2009 on the statewide committee that sets construction engineering standards, specifications, and materials acceptance requirements. He engaged with staff, industry, and university researchers and created better specifications and standards for longer-lasting and more cost-effective constructed projects for the Ohio DOT and local public agencies statewide.
While construction claims and disputes are often part of the contracting environment, Randy has a unique ability to have disagreeing parties reach an agreement on the engineering first, often leading to settlement and a path forward. Over his career at the Ohio DOT, this ability led to the resolution of dozens of claims and disputes, limiting financial and project delay impacts.
In 2009, due to the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the Ohio DOT moved forward with its first Design-Build contract to replace the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge in downtown Cleveland, a structure similar to the I-35 structure. The “Magnificent Seven” as we called ourselves created the first ever Design-Build contract documents for the Ohio DOT. At the time of contract execution in 2010, it was the largest single construction contract in Ohio DOT’s history.
Randy was responsible for more than US $2.4B in completed construction projects upon retirement in 2017. He is currently an engineering education and construction claims consultant.
He is married to Ann and has three grown children and three grandchildren. He lives in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
Honors & Awards
2024 President, Engineers Without Borders
2015 The Ohio State University – Outstanding Civil Engineering Alumni Award
2014 President, ASCE, the Nation’s oldest engineering society, with 150,000 members in 177 countries
2011 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) William H. Wisely Award
Randall (Randy) S. Over
Likely destined to be a Civil Engineer as the son and grandson of civil engineers, Randy graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Ohio State University in 1983 and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Ohio. Between 1983 and 1991, he worked for civil engineering consulting firms designing and managing the construction of infrastructure projects for multiple state Department of Transportations (DOTs), agencies, and local governments.
Larry Ross
Visiting instructor/consultant: Mr. Ross has been a technical and management contributor in the aerospace industry for over fifty years after having received a BS in electrical engineering from Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York City. His thirty-two year career at the NASA Lewis Research Center, now NASA Glenn, culminated in his assignment as Center Director from 1990-1994. Prior to that assignment he held the positions of Deputy Center Director, Director of Space, and Director of Launch Vehicles. Earlier in his career, he held various positions associated with engineering and program management of the Atlas/Centaur and Titan/Centaur Programs. He was chairman of the Delta 178 Failure Review Board in 1986. Mr. Ross retired from NASA in 1995, and since that time has served as a senior consultant to NASA and other Government agencies, as well as to the commercial aerospace Industry. Mr. Ross is co-founder and CEO of Aerospace Engineering Associates. He is the father of four children The father of four and grandfather of eight, he was a husband of fifty-six years before the death of his wife Carol in 2021.
Joe Nieberding (in memory, April 2023)
Prior visiting instructor/consultant: After earning a B.S in physics in 1966 and an M.S. in Engineering Science in 1972, Mr. Nieberding acquired over fifty years of management and technical experience in the aerospace industry. In his early career, he was a launch team member on over sixty-five NASA Atlas/Centaur and Titan/Centaur launches at Kennedy Space Center. He was a widely recognized expert in launch vehicles and advanced transportation architecture planning for space missions. Later, he led and participated in many independent program review teams for NASA Headquarters. Before retiring from NASA Glenn Research Center in 2000, under his direction the Advanced Space Analysis Office led all exploration advanced concept studies for Glenn, including transportation, propulsion, power, and communications systems for many advanced NASA mission applications. Since retirement, he held numerous consulting positions for NASA and other government agencies. In addition, Mr. Nieberding was co-founder and President of Aerospace Engineering Associates, and co-author and presenter of a highly acclaimed class titled “Mission Success First: Lessons Learned”. He was the father of four children and husband of fifty years, the father of four and grandfather of three. Tragically, Joe died of cancer in March of 2023.
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AR NexGen translates lessons into concrete strategies that will minimize or eliminate root causes of engineering system mishaps and near misses.