Faces of WISEST: Callie Lissinna

Callie Lissinna was fascinated by space as a young girl in Edmonton, but considered a career in the space sector out of reach. Today she is a co-founder of Wyvern, an Edmonton-based space data company with four satellites in space taking pictures of Earth every day. After participating in Choices (2009), SET (2013), and the SRP (2014), she earned a BSc. Mechanical Engineering with a Mathematics Minor from the University of Alberta in 2021. During her undergraduate studies, she was a leader in the AlbertaSat student satellite program. This included leading in-orbit operations of Ex-Alta 1, the first satellite to ever be made in Alberta. Her experience working in a mechanical engineering lab with the WISEST SRP put her on the trajectory toward that incredible opportunity.

She met her co-founders in AlbertaSat, started Wyvern, and together they graduated from the prestigious Y Combinator startup accelerator in 2022. Over her 7+ years as a co-founder she has held various roles in engineering, business operations, leadership, and sales.

Growing up as a competitive dancer, much of Callie’s know-how about teamwork, initiative, discipline, and leadership she brings to her work was learned at dance. She currently teaches dance classes to kids and teens in the evenings.  

Without the WISEST SRP, Callie likely would not have considered engineering as a career path and would not have realized her dream of working in the space industry. She is extremely grateful for how WISEST challenged her preconceptions about what’s possible and illuminated a career path that is so much better than she could have imagined as a young girl.