Kabrina Thompson was inspired to get involved with The Mars Initiative through her love of space and human innovation along with her strong drive to help organizations grow and thrive. Outside of her professional pursuits, she enjoys staying active at the gym, trying new workout classes, and indulging her love for trivia and reading. A couple of fun facts about Kabrina: she finds peace at the beach and takes joy in continuously learning new things. If she could choose one superpower it would be the ability to fly—an homage to her childhood love of Peter Pan and her fascination with freedom and adventure. A motto that she tries to live by is “everything is temporary, so try to always be present.”

Darla Huff joined Mars Initiative because she has always admired astronauts and been fascinated by space. She enjoys supporting and being part of something way bigger than herself and this planet. She would love to see us get humans on Mars in her lifetime. Additionally, Darla has been passionate about golf for over 20 years. When she’s not playing or promoting golf, she loves spending time with Callie, her English Cocker Spaniel. A fun fact about Darla is that she loves to travel and has been to 47 states and 28 countries! If given a “superpower” to help the mission, Darla would want to be an encourager to others to support getting humans to Mars. She knows this would be a huge step for science and an important achievement for this generation. A guiding inspiration for Darla is “She believed she could, so she did.”

Rich Romano joined Mars Initiative because he’s always been drawn to the ideas and concepts surrounding curiosity, which is where his love for Marketing stems. The Mars Initiative reflects that mindset by combining vision, innovation, and collective purpose to achieve something historic. He joined because this represents the best of what people can accomplish when they think bigger than themselves. Outside of work, Rich focuses on family time, playing the guitar, enjoying great movies, and following Buffalo Bills football. A fun fact about Rich is that he is a huge NASCAR fan, an enjoyment that started early in life and then intensified as he had a chance to work with multiple teams for marketing events. If given a “superpower” to help the mission, Rich would choose the ability to instantly connect and align brilliant minds around a shared goal. A guiding inspiration for Rich comes from the words of Walt Disney, “Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”