Neuroscience Lecturer Leaps into Women’s Suffrage Celebration

01.17.2023

Dr. Vanessa Shirazi, pictured holding her son Ari, joined skydivers from 22 nations in November to honor the 100th anniversary of women in the U.S. gaining the right to vote.

Dr. Vanessa Shirazi says skydiving gives her a sense of “complete freedom” — an appropriate way to celebrate a freedom gained a century ago.

Shirazi, a neuroscience lecturer in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas, joined skydivers from 22 nations in November to honor the 100th anniversary of women in the U.S. gaining the right to vote.

The Women’s Skydiving Network’s Project 19 — referencing the 19th amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1920 — was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In late 2022, the skydivers achieved their goal of setting a new world record with 80 jumpers in formation, although they fell short of their ultimate goal of a symbolic 100.

“When you’re out in the sky, skydiving gives you a sense of complete freedom,” Shirazi said. “It’s very empowering to be able to harness our fear and conquer something that we all start out scared of and make it something that’s enjoyable and fun.”

Skydiving was simply a hobby at first for Shirazi; her first jump was at a bachelorette party in 2010.

“I bought my second jump as soon as I landed. Two weeks later, when I landed from the second jump, I signed up for the course to get my license,” she said.

When Project 19 was announced in 2018, she knew her skill level would have to progress for her to be invited to participate. She traveled to about a dozen camps, training and trying out before receiving her call-up in 2020.

“Women make up only about 13% of the membership of the United States Parachute Association,” Shirazi said. “When I heard about this all-female jump, I thought, ‘I need to be a part of that.’”

Then COVID-19 shut everything down — and life changed in other ways for Shirazi, both personally and professionally.

“My first son, Ace, was born in February 2021. My second son, Ari, was born in May 2022,” she said. “It has been challenging to juggle motherhood, teaching and training, but it has been a great motivator for me.”

Skydivers set a new world record with 80 jumpers in formation as part of the Women’s Skydiving Network’s Project 19.

Like her path to November’s long-awaited Project 19 jump, Shirazi’s path to UT Dallas was indirect. By the time she finished postdoctoral work at Tulane University, she knew that research was not the path for her.

“I started looking for potential careers. At Tulane, I’d worked with BioTek [now Agilent] instruments. I was able to get a field sales position with them, based out of Dallas, where I’d never lived before,” she said. “That job brought me to the UT Dallas campus quite a bit. I loved the landscape and architecture, and the people were always super nice.”

In 2021, she joined the faculty, and she continued her skydiving training.

During one week in the Arizona desert, the Project 19 team built larger and larger formation groups to break the existing record of 65, starting with the inner core of 40 people. Shirazi was in a group that was added in the team’s pursuit to reach 100 in formation.

“Before you take off, you show the judges a diagram. They approve it, and then everybody goes up. You come down; they review the video; and they have to see every single grip in that formation at the same time,” she said. “First, they set the world record with a formation of 72 women; shortly after, they achieved 80. We attempted 100 quite a few times, completing formations of 97 and 98, but could never quite get everybody in the right place at the right time.”

Shirazi reflected on her time with Project 19 and the positive energy it generated in her daily life.

“What I took away personally is to challenge myself every day in other ways, especially in terms of being of service to my students and being the best mom I can be,” she said. “With Project 19, we talked a lot about the suffrage movement and how much strength and bravery that the suffragists had. That’s what we set out to champion — to inspire women and girls to live brave lives.”

–Stephen Fontenot