Jennifer Nelson

Finance Director

Mrs. Jennifer Nelson serves as the Finance Director for the SBA. As the finance director, Mrs. Nelson oversees the day-to-day finances for the organization and oversees the scholarships and awards committee.

Professor Erick Agrimson serves as the Publications Director for the SBA and is also a founding member of the SBA. As the Publications Director, Professor Agrimson oversees the Publications Committee which handles all conference papers and the Journal for High Altitude Ballooning (JHAB).

Professor Agrimson is an Associate Professor in the Physics department at St. Catherine University. He currently is serving as affiliate director for St. Catherine University’s portion of the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, a NASA outreach program. Professor Agrimson uses high altitude weather balloons as a delivery method to send up payload boxes with varied instrumentation to study near space. St. Kate’s has had balloons reach altitudes of up to 35,000 meters (~115,000 feet) depending on the size of balloon used and payload mass. One of the current projects involving collaborative undergraduate researchers is the study of the Regener-Pfotzer (R-P) maxima to study galactic cosmic ray showers. Agrimson holds a BS (with a concentration in space physics) from Augsburg College, an MS from the University of Iowa and has completed advanced coursework toward a PhD in plasma physics.

Dr. James Flaten serves as the Events Director for the SBA and is also a founding member of the SBA. As the Events Director, Dr. Flaten oversees the Events Planning committee, including helping coordinate the Academic High Altitude Conference and other events.

Dr. Flaten is an Associate Contract Professor in the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Dr. Flaten holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics (with Computer Science emphasis) from Carleton College. Dr. Flaten serves as the Associate Director of the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium (MnSGC), a NASA higher education program that involves state-wide promotion of all things NASA-related. He teaches NASA-related classes, including freshman seminars on high-altitude ballooning and high-power rocketry. Also, he works with college students and faculty (and others) on out-of-class NASA-related projects, including building and flying miniature spacecraft into the stratosphere using weather balloons, developing science payloads for NASA suborbital rocket flights, and mentoring student teams participating in high-power rocketry competitions.

Mr. Bill Brown serves as the Public Relations Director fo rthe SBA. As the Public Relations Director, Mr. Brown oversees the Public Relations committee and helps with the image of the SBA.

Bill Brown, amateur radio callsign WB8ELK, launched his first balloon into the stratosphere on August 15, 1987 which just happened to be his birthday.  It was the first privately funded high altitude balloon to carry aloft a UHF television transmitter. The image was seen over 300 miles in all directions. Less than a year later he launched the first TV camera transmitting live video of the incredible view of the edge of Space. Since that time, Bill has launched over 700 balloons ranging in size from 10-gram Pico balloons to 400-pound Rockoons. Bill’s goal has always been to use high altitude balloons to encourage students to pursue careers in the STEM fields. He has mentored many student balloon projects over the decades from elementary to college level. Bill states that if you can launch a balloon that students can track in real-time on their Smartphones then you have them hooked and is a great way to teach students about Space and science. He likes to say it is “Taking Amateur Radio and STEM to New Heights”.  In 1997 he was part of a team called HALO (High Altitude Lift Off) that launched a large hybrid rocket from a balloon in the stratosphere.  It was listed at the time in the Guiness Book of Records as the highest amateur built rocket launch. In addition to the larger balloon missions he still flies and supports, Bill has designed a Pico balloon tracker called the Skytracker that weighs less than half an ounce. It was designed to be totally solar-powered and lightweight enough to fly underneath a small Mylar-style party balloon. This lightweight superpressure balloon can stay aloft in the upper Jet Stream for days, weeks and sometimes over a year in duration and often circumnavigates the World multiple times.  It transmits its position via amateur radio digital modes which is received by a Worldwide network of ground stations. Bill recently retired from the NASA SLS Artemis Moon program where he was a Sr. Engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Bill is a recent addition to the SBA board and will be reaching out to many of you in his new role at this conference.

 Reference:https://www.arrl.org/files/file/QST/This%20Month%20in%20QST/May2017/GLIFORT.pdf

Dr. Kendra Sibbersen serves as the director for Education and Outreach. As the director for E&O, Dr. Sibbersen oversees the E&O committee is works to providing programs and outreach to institutions wanting to use high altitude ballooning for STEM education.

Dr. Kendra Sibbernsen has taught physics and astronomy at the college level for over 25 years. She currently works at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, NE. Kendra has developed many undergraduate research opportunities for her students over the years including those using cosmic ray detectors, high altitude ballooning projects, and citizen science projects for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and Unistellar using electronic telescopes. Kendra and her husband, Michael, led the team from Nebraska that participated in the NASA Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project in 2017, as well as the annular solar eclipse in 2023 and the total solar eclipse in 2024. Kendra and Michael are heavily involved in the development of Branched Oak Observatory, a non-profit sky park north of Lincoln, Nebraska, focusing on astronomy education and outreach.

Bill Brown

Public Relations Director

Kendra Sibbersen

Education and Outreach Director