Sylvia Acevedo
Engineer. CEO. Strategist. Board Leader. Trailblazer.
Sylvia Acevedo is a boundary-breaking engineer and leadership strategist whose career spans space exploration, Silicon Valley, and C-suites. From working on missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to executive roles at Apple, Dell, and IBM, she’s made a career of turning bold ideas into real-world results.
A trusted voice in tech, Sylvia serves on the boards of Qualcomm and Credo Technologies, where she is Lead Independent Director. She advises early-stage CEOs and has scaled companies from startup to successful exits—including co-founding REBA Technologies. As CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, she led the largest programmatic expansion in a century, with over 146 new badges in STEM, entrepreneurship, civics, and the outdoors—impacting millions.
Her influence extends beyond business. A former White House Education Commissioner, she helped shape early childhood education policy at the federal level. She has been recognized by Forbes, Bloomberg, and InStyle, and received Mexico’s prestigious Ohtli Award and the Captain of Industry Leadership Award from IISE.
Sylvia’s bestselling memoir Path to the Stars inspired a generation. In The Trailblazer’s Playbook, Sylvia Acevedo reveals the strategic mindset and decisive tactics that powered her rise—from NASA to the boardroom. Built around her Clarity–Courage–Conviction framework, this essential guide offers real-world insights drawn from bold leadership moves, high-stakes decisions, and the resilience forged through personal tragedy. For anyone ready to own their path, navigate complexity, and deliver meaningful results—this is your playbook.
Sylvia holds an engineering degree with honors from New Mexico State University and was one of the first Hispanics—male or female—to earn a graduate engineering degree from Stanford. She has received honorary doctorates from Duke, Washington College, and Saint Mary’s.
Discover how you can achieve the impossible from someone who’s done it before
In The Trailblazer’s Playbook: Practical Tactics to Rise Against the Odds to Achieve Excellence, celebrated executive, entrepreneur, and engineer and rocket scientist Sylvia Acevedo delivers an insightful and transformative manifesto for everyone who dares to defy the odds and achieve greatness. The author chronicles the relentless pursuit of excellence and the resilience you’ll need to overcome extraordinary challenges.
The book takes you through an odyssey of the most pivotal moments in Acevedo’s life, chronicling her trailblazing career and the tragedies she overcame to achieve personal growth. It’s packed with practical advice and actionable strategies you can apply immediately to your own life to help you conquer obstacles, overcome loss, embrace risk, and seize opportunities.
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Also by Sylvia Acevedo
Path to the Stars: My Journey from
Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist
The inspiring memoir for young readers about a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science.
With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail to become one of the first Latinx to graduate with a master’s in engineering from Stanford University and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Simultaneously available in Spanish!
