VIP INFLUENCER

TECH WIZARD • DIGITAL DISRUPTOR • ASPIRING ASTRONAUT

Story by Liesel Schmidt | Photography by Barry Daly

For Lisa “the Landstronaut” Alcindor, exploring new frontiers is a way of life—both professionally and personally. As a tech wizard, her career has been fraught with pushing boundaries and innovating— first, as a civilian working with the Air Force as a program manager on a $3.5 billion satellite program, then during a stint at the Pentagon facilitating budgets for the Air

Force Headquarters. “I’m known as the ‘Digital Disruptor’ in this space,” notes Alcindor, who is also an aircraft pilot-in-training as well as a founder of Classic Meteeor LLC, a company that facilitates the digital transformation of businesses to Web3, including cryptocurrency infrastructures.

In addition to her work in the digital realm, Alcindor is an aspiring astronaut—though her dreams of exploring space came later in the game. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a police officer. Then, I wanted to be in the music industry. Then, I wanted to be an actress. Then, I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” she laughs. “I became interested in becoming an astronaut after watching the movie, Hidden Figures. I was actually working for NASA at the time.”

With her background in tech, it tracks that Alcindor would utilize social media to become an influencer—and she’s definitely influencing. As a Black woman, she hopes to orbit Earth and become one of the few Black women who have gone to space—a journey that she’s sharing on her Instagram account, @LisaTheLandstronaut. And she’s been known to bust out a rhyme or two to post to her IG story. “My presence on social media is critical to what we’re doing. I feel that it is important for us to come together in the futurism and the evolution of humanity,” says Alcindor, who also works with the nonprofit, Space for Humanity. “Going to space is important to me because it affords me the opportunity to bring people together for a greater purpose.”

Going to space is important to me because it affords me the opportunity to bring people together for a greater purpose.