Anastaysia, Vice President

Ms. Anastasiya “Astia” Plachta has two children enrolled in the GCDC, and has been a committed, active member for a year. As one of the room parents, she collaboratively organized and executed events, fundraisings, and surveys.

In her NASA role she is an IT Business Relationships Manager, which has responsibilities such as being a custodian for government tagged items and coordinating computer support. Ms. Plachta has connections with the Agency Office of the Chief Information Officer and relationships with the IT teams, which will be helpful for the tech-related duties. Astia is excited to serve as Vice President and support the GCDC to achieve its important mission!

Christine Banks, Registrar

Ms. Christine Banks is from Norwalk, CT and has been with the Government for almost 15 years serving as a Budget Analyst at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and currently at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Program Analysis Office. She has both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. She has strong organizational, communication, and analytical skills.

Christine has two children, a 20-year-old son who is currently a junior year at Penn State majoring in engineering and a daughter who she hopes will join the GCDC family once she turns two in 2024. She enjoys theaters, concerts, movies, traveling, and spending time with family. Christine looks forward to serving as your Registrar.

Erin Roberts, Secretary

Erin Roberts has been acting as GCDC Board Secretary since February 2022. She has one kid enrolled at GCDC and one recent graduate, and works at NASA Goddard in the Exploration and Space Communications division.

Erin has too many hobbies to count, but loves creating digital art/graphic design and enjoy the occasional spicy margarita. She has very much enjoyed serving as the GCDC Board Secretary and looks forward to continuing for another year. Organization and communication are key elements that she values and would like to emphasize with the GCDC Board this year.

Gioia Rau, Member at Large

Dr. Gioia Rau is a Program Scientist at Schmidt Futures, a Visiting Researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Research Assistant Professor at CUA. She investigates a broad range of astrophysical topics including exoplanets and stellar astrophysics using artificial intelligence techniques, the most advanced computational models, and data that she obtained from the largest telescopes on Earth and in Space such as, among others, HST, TESS, Keck, VLTI, ALMA, and CHARA. Programmatically, Dr. Rau co-leads the Virtual Institute of Astrophysics (VIA) and shares responsibilities for creating, managing, and supporting programs at the forefront of astrophysics.

Dr. Rau has a track record of numerous scientific publications, international collaborations, and leads the scientific side of multiple NASA mission concepts in development. She has recently been elected Chair of the prestigious International Astronomical Union Working Group on Red Giants and Red Supergiants.

Dr. Rau has received numerous awards for scientific merits, and she supervises interns, PhD students, and postdocs. Dr. Rau is highly committed and passionate about fostering and promoting DEIA (Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility) values, especially by supporting women and other underrepresented minorities in pursuing scientific careers. Dr. Rau enjoys volunteering activities for promoting science, such as taking lead roles in the executive board of ISSNAF (https://www.issnaf.org/).

Dr. Rau has been actively involved in GCDC being a Room parent last year, and having her child Celestia (Little Dippers room) there since the beginning of 2022. She is extremely excited about the opportunity to give back to this wonderful community.

Nicole Jacobs, Member at Large

Nicole Jacobs has two children, a son and a daughter. Her son has been enrolled in GCDC since March 2023, and her daughter has an anticipated GCDC enrollment of early 2024. Nicole and her family look forward to being active members of the GCDC community for many years. Her son’s transition to GCDC has been extremely positive, and Nicole looks forward to helping GCDC continue to provide high-quality care and educational experiences to all enrolled children and their families.

Nicole is from Baltimore, MD, and graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC with a degree in business administration. She works for the U.S. Department of Labor as a branch chief in the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive. In the past, Nicole has served in her community as the HOA newsletter editor-in-chief. She has also volunteered for many organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Meals on Wheels, Baltimore Reading Literacy program, and NAACP Read it Forward. She enjoys many hobbies including cooking, reading, traveling, and salsa dancing.