Vanessa E. Wyche

Vanessa E. Wyche is an American engineer and civil servant who works at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of JSC.[1][2][3] As a lead engineer, Wyche assists the JSC leadership team with policy development, staff relations, strategic planning, and management integration of technical, mission support and communications activities.

Vanessa Wyche
Wyche from Women at NASA c. 2014

Career

Wyche became interested in science at an early age and had parents who supported her interests in science.[4][5] She grew up in Conway, South Carolina.[5] When she was a junior in high school, she attended the Governor's School for top students.[5] In 1981, she started attending Clemson University.[5] Wyche holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Materials Engineering and a Master’s of Science in Bioengineering from Clemson.[6]

Wyche began her career at the Food and Drug Administration.[6] Her career with NASA began in 1989.[6] Wyche also served as a Project Manager within the Space and Life Sciences Directorate, where she was responsible for the development and use of suites of hardware systems for medical and microgravity experiments on the space shuttle and the International Space Station.[6][7] She has led a team of 400 engineers and scientists that are working on how to send human explorers to Mars.[8] She has also worked as the director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. On August 8, 2018, Vanessa Wyche was selected as the Johnson Space Center Deputy Director.[1]

Throughout her career, Wyche has held several key leadership positions at the Johnson Space Center, including:

  • Flight Manager for the Space Shuttle Program
  • Director of Operations and Test Integration for the Constellation Program
  • Acting Director for the Human Exploration Development Support Directorate
  • Deputy Director for the Johnson Space Center

Awards

In recognition of her leadership and innovation skills, Wyche has received the following awards:

Leadership and community involvement

Wyche currently lives in Houston.[3]

References
  1. Bacon, Nicole (2018-08-08). "NASA Announces New Deputy Director of Johnson Space Center". NASA. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  2. Wong, Michael (2017-11-07). "Vanessa E. Wyche - Deputy Director of NASA's Johnson Space Center". NASA. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  3. Shah, Leah (2018-03-15). "Influential Women in Houston". Visit Houston. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  4. Donchey, Sara (7 April 2017). "Women Making a Difference: NASA scientist teaches students..." Click 2 Houston. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  5. Rodriguez, Louise (25 April 2017). "Science, and Chance, Propelled African-American Engineer to NASA". Reporting Texas. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  6. "Vanessa Wyche". Women@NASA. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  7. "NASA encourages young minds at 13th Annual Math & Science Lecture Series - North Dallas Gazette". North Dallas Gazette. 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  8. "NASA scientist encourages girls to pursue STEM careers". Carolina Panorama Newspaper. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  9. "Vanessa E. Wyche, Conway native, to be honored for NASA accomplishments". Myrtle Beach Online. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.