Maggie Masetti

Maggie Masetti is an award-winning social media strategist and science communicator, with degrees in astronomy/astrophysics and math. As the NASA Social Media Lead for the James Webb Space Telescope, she helps tell the story of the world's most powerful space telescope to an audience of millions. She has been working on SciComms for the Webb team in one form or another for 20 years.

Her team's intense 10-month social media campaign, which spanned from the run up to launch in 2021 to first images in July of 2022, was the winner of the Webby People's Voice award in 2023 for Social Media/Education & Discovery (Campaigns), and an honoree in Social Media/Education & Discovery. She and then co-lead Isabelle Yan also won two Robert H. Goddard awards and a NASA Agency Honor Award in 2023 for this work.

Masetti always looks for new and interesting ways for NASA to engage with the public. She is extremely proud of the multiple art initiatives she created for Webb, including the original 2016 Artist Event, which became a 2017 art exhibit and an ongoing social media JWST-inspired art campaign with over 500 web gallery submissions. For Webb's launch in 2021, Masetti co-created the Unfold the Universe art campaign, which asked the public to submit photos or videos of themselves and their art, inspired by what they thought Webb would discover. Submissions from this campaign were featured in the launch broadcast.

She has previously done web development and education/outreach for other missions including Suzaku and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer for the Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics, as well as podcasted and blogged for for the Astrophysics Science Division. During a stint in Earth Science, she worked on the "Echo the Bat" and "Amelia the Pigeon" education/outreach projects, as well as on web development for the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory and the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics.

NASA Agency Honor Award (Group Achievement Award with Isabelle Yan for NASA Webb Social Media), 2023

Webby People's Voice Winner (Social/Education & Discovery/Campaigns), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Unfolds the Universe, 2023

Webby Honoree (Social/Education and Discovery), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Unfolds the Universe, 2023

Robert H. Goddard Honor Award, Exceptional Achievement in Outreach, James Webb Space Telescope Social Media Team with Isabelle Yan, 2023

Robert H. Goddard Honor Award, Exceptional Achievement in Outreach, JWST Communications and Outreach Team, 2023

ADNET Excellence Award, 2022

ADNET CREW Award (Customer Recognition of Exemplary Work), 2022

ADNET Unsung Hero Peer Award, 2018

ADNET Outstanding Achievement Award, 2018

ADNET CREW Award (Customer Recognition of Exemplary Work), 2014

ADNET Outstanding Achievement Award, 2010

SSAI Outstanding Achievement Award, 2005

Maggie has been involved in education & public outreach (as well as website development) at NASA since her summer internship in 1996. She has worked for the Lab for High Energy Astrophysics, the Lab for Terrestrial Science, the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, and the Astrophysics Science Division. As a result, she has had experience in both the space and earth sciences, though her academic background is in astrophysics and physics. Over the years she has: written articles about astrophysics; worked with teachers; developed activities and lesson plans; created posters and other print materials; designed and created websites, on-line learning centers, and Flash games; and run high-profile social media accounts and events - all to help bring NASA science to the public and to educators. Currently, she is the NASA social media lead for the James Webb Space Telescope mission.

Select Outreach/Social Media Highlights:

• "Inside the James Webb Telescope’s Viral Moments—and How They Won a Webby for It" - a 2024 interview with my Webb social media team about the 2023 Webby Award win.
• "Looking for Art in the James Webb Space Telescope," The New Yorker
•  As of 2024, over 3.2 million followers on NASAWebb's Twitter and over 3.5 million on Instagram, nearly 300 million views on Webb's Flickr. My social team wrote NASA's top 2 social media posts of all time (engagements) for Webb's First Images & Data reveal on July 12, 2022.
• 2023 Webby People's Voice winner for Social Media -> Education & Discovery -> campaigns category (and honoree in another category) for "NASA"s James Webb Space Telescope Unfolds the Universe," a 10 month launch to first images social media campaign. ( View our "For Your Consideration" presentation)
• Curated Ashley Zelinskie's "Unfolding the Universe" JWST-inspired art exhibit on ONX Gallery in NYC.
• "Artist helps NASA Scientists Bring Their Work Back to Galleries," The New York Times
• Organized and ran Agency's first Twitter Spaces.
• Facilitated Webb's "Key Facts International" - facts about Webb in 50+ languages:
• #UnfoldTheUniverse: organized launch social media campaign of Webb science-inspired art created by and contributed to our gallery by the public (320 submissions and counting).
• 2020 update to "Build It Yourself: Satellite": update of Masetti's game where you get to be the scientist and build your own space telescope.
• 2020 update to "Scope It Out": update of Masetti's game for comparing JWST, Hubble, and a simple backyard telescope
• #JWSTArt: organized social media campaign of JWST-inspired art created by and contributed to our gallery by the public (over 500 submissions and counting).
• 2017 JWST Art Exhibit: organized a NASA Goddard Visitor Center exhibit of JWST-inspired art which was created as a result of the 2016 artist event. The art has also been shown in two separate exhibits in Austin, TX. (Online gallery)
• 2016 JWST Artist Event: organized a highly successful social media event for artists to come create art in front of JWST
• NASA Blueshift: between 2007 and 2016, wrote blogs (over 225) and was part of 50 podcasts for NASA Blueshift, the Astrophysics Science Division's "backstage pass" to the science, missions and people involved in NASA Goddard astrophysics.
• "Amelia the Pigeon": team member for development of this K-4 feature for learning about change over time. (no longer available)
• The Cosmic Distance Scale: a feature for learning about the size and scale of the universe
• X-ray Spectroscopy and the Chemistry of Supernova Remnants: a series of lesson plans
• Shedding a New Light on the Universe: an informational booklet on X-ray astronomy

Outside of work, she plays guitar and sings in a local band, has written science fiction short stories, is working on her fluency in Norwegian, and is currently learning Dutch. She is a notary public in Maryland, because why not.