Aug 17, 2024 By Katherine Mansfield 6 min read

Kristen Crawford didn’t want to be president.

In fact, after attending an event through the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh (AAAP) with her husband, Brian, Crawford figured it would be his “thing,” not hers.

“Brian wanted to get trained on the telescopes immediately. I was like, I don’t think I’m gonna get involved that much. I was like, I think I’ll just, you know, observe, and let you have your fun,” said Crawford, of Belle Vernon. “Then seven years later, here I am.”

“Here” is shattering the glass ceiling: On June 1, Crawford stepped into the AAAP presidency, the first woman elected president in the organization’s 95 years.

“I don’t know if it’s hit me just yet,” Crawford said in a recent interview, staring up at the dome inside Mingo Creek Park Observatory’s planetarium. “Whenever I was running, I didn’t have the incentive to basically be like, ‘Let’s get a woman for the first time in here!’ That wasn’t really my motivation. It was more of, I just wanted to help, and I wanted to be able to assist everybody in whatever way that I could.”

Crawford, a laboratory tester at Quest Diagnostics, has always been a helper: She started volunteering at a young age with her church, Holy Trinity, in Washington, where she was part of the choir, and served as a candy striper at Washington Hospital through high school.

She’s also always been active in extracurriculars. At Avella High School, Crawford played sports, played clarinet and tenor sax in the marching band, and barrel-raced for 4-H before graduating in 2005. At Westminster College, Crawford, who has a degree in biology, was president of the equestrian team, competing as a hunter jumper.

“It was always something. Softball. I was huge into dance. Gymnastics. My sister, my brother, we were always involved with sports, with extracurricular activities. If we could be involved in something, we did it. We probably drove my parents crazy,” Crawford, the oldest of three, said with a smile.

It’s not surprising that once her husband became more involved with AAAP – he’s now director of the Mingo observatory – Crawford was drawn into the organization’s orbit.

“I would work at the front desk and just give the basic information,” she said. “Then I started doing presentations for the planetarium room. I liked engaging with the public. I liked to share the information that I got the opportunity to learn. It’s just having that, ‘Did you know this?’ and seeing the reaction. That was what drove me in this organization: the education factor.”

From a young age, Crawford, who earned a master’s in medical laboratory science from West Liberty (W.Va.) University, loved science. But the solar system units she sat through in elementary school never captured her attention.

“You weren’t applying it to your daily life,” Crawford said. “As an adult, you’re caught up in reality: It’s pay bills, it’s go to work every day. Whenever you take that step back and you realize that what you think is your whole world, it really isn’t. There’s so much that’s beyond even earth. When I got here, it was a reminder that it’s not just this world. There’s so much else that’s out there. A lot of us, we see the sun rise, but you don’t think, ‘How many sunspots are on the sun right now?'”

It is sharing information – like the fact that our planet has one singular moon, while others have multiple – with kids and adults alike that kept Crawford volunteering with AAAP. She’s certified to operate the observatory’s two telescopes (which are used for astrophotography, one of the perks of AAAP membership) and has sat through countless lectures and classes, absorbing as much information as possible.

In 2017, Crawford was selected member secretary. Together with more IT-minded members, she created a QR code that allows visitors to learn more about and, hopefully, join or donate to the out-of-this-world organization. She also led the creation of The Command Center, where children and kids-at-heart color learn about the solar system and view a telescope live stream while waiting for their turn at the eyepiece during the AAAP’s star parties, held in September through May.

When Crawford learned AAAP’s former president would not seek reelection, she volunteered to run for office. She ran unopposed, and was elated to be elected to oversee one of the larger amateur astronomers associations in the country.

“I was biting at the bit. I wanted to start getting the committees together, start talking about some future plans. I wanted to get going,” she said.

The project list, Crawford admitted, is long and continues to grow. Among the undertakings she’s most excited about are revamping fundraising efforts and bridging the divide between the AAAP’s two observatories: Mingo, and the Wagman Observatory in Tarentum.

“Anything nowadays is tremendously expensive, and especially this sort of equipment,” Crawford said. “We have to keep up with building repairs. We also need materials and supplies for STEM outreach, which is another thing we’re really trying.”

The AAAP relies on member fees, donations and grant money to fund projects and upkeep. To supplement, “we’re trying to do a storefront,” Crawford said.

The store is in its infancy, but already stickers (like the cheeky “I Got Mooned at Mingo Park” one) and other memorabilia are available at observatory front desks. Crawford is also creating a grant committee to research and apply for opportunities.

In addition to the star parties, Crawford is excited to launch indoor star-hopping parties and expanding education through more off-site events with local Girl and Boy Scouts, YMCAs and other organizations.

She is also hoping to attract new, active members.

“Anybody is welcome to join the club,” Crawford said. “You don’t have to be at a certain level to be a member of this club. We all share, bring our own interests and also experiences, and we just share it with each other.”

She is working to share ideas, like Mingo’s adaptive technologies for guests with disabilities and live-streamed telescopes, with Wagman, and ticking projects off the astronomical to-do list. With so much going on beneath the starry Western Pennsylvania skies, Crawford scarcely has time to pause and consider what it means for her, a woman, to lead the AAAP into this next phase of existence.

“After the election was over and it was final that, ‘Kristen, you’re the president!,’ I had a lot of female and also male members that had emailed me, phone called, to say that they were so proud to see a female member climb that ladder to become president. I’m hoping it may have allowed other women to also know that it can be done. It’s OK to want to take a leadership role,” Crawford said. “Sometimes, you just need that one person to break the ice. I had no problem doing it, so that’s what I did.”