Filiipina American engineer Josephine Santiago-Bond was born in the U.S. and grew up in the Philippines. She was exposed to the natural world at a young age, as her parents earned PhD's in science and encouraged her to explore similar areas. However, Santiago-Bond was interested but not hooked on any one field. She recalls, "As a child, I always knew I would go to college, get a job, try to earn enough to afford the things I need and want, but I had not envisioned a particular profession" (spot.ph).

Although she did not have a set path in mind, she worked hard in school and earned a B.S. in Electronics & Communications Engineering from the University of Philippines. She also earned a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University. At times, she struggled with poor grades in math classes. In an interview with spot.ph, Santiago-Bond revealed that she had to spend many nights practicing math and engineering problems until she felt confident enough to take an exam. “I had to crawl my way through some of the courses, but I wasn’t going to give up on [my degree] because of a few bad grades,” spot.ph reports.

The former Head of the Advanced Engineering Development Branch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, Santiago-Bond initially did not even like space, but a summer opportunity afforded her the chance to learn about the KSC, where she fell in love with NASA and its mission and values (safety, integrity, teamwork, and excellence).

Today, Santiago is Chief of KSC's Safety and Mission Assurance Institutional Division at NASA. “I’ve witnessed how [my family] achieved their career goals by having strong work ethic, and they have expected no less from me,” Santiago-Bond wrote to Asian Journal. In her free time, she is the chair for the Kennedy’s Asian Pacific American Connection (APAC) Employee Resource Group.