The Health Diaries

The Girl Scouts CEO Is an Actual Rocket Scientist

‘I attribute my lifelong passion for outdoor adventure to my time as a Girl Scout.’

There are many ways to live a healthy life. The Health Diaries is a weekly series about the habits that keep notable people living well.

You may know Sylvia Acevedo as the CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. But before that, she was a rocket scientist. Acevedo worked as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, IBM, and Dell. Then in 2017, she took on her newest challenge: growing 21st century leadership programming for the Girl Scouts.

As CEO, Acevedo immediately got to work tackling membership declines. She targeted outreach to African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other minority girls in the United States, and she backed major technological advancements for the organization. But she’s not done yet; Acevedo has big plans for taking the nation’s nearly two million Girl Scouts and turning their collective action into leadership.

This week, Acevedo spoke with Medium about her love of the outdoors, the importance of travel, and her favorite kind of Girl Scout cookie.

I tend to wake up around 5:30 a.m. I use an alarm clock because I regularly travel across so many…