As of 2014, she was only one of 4 Costa Ricans working directly for NASA. On many of the projects she worked on, including the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 1, she was often one of few female engineers on the team. Cauffman gave a Young TEDx talk in 2014 to inspire young people to dream. Cauffman wants all young people to believe that even if they have come from a poor family, that they can still reach their goals. After her retirement, she is planning to help support STEM for young people in Costa Rica. In 2016, Cauffman helped six high-school students from Costa Rica to visit Cape Canaveral as VIP guests for the launch of the GOES satellite.