Vanessa E. Wyche is an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and civil servant who has served as the director of

NASA Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late ...

(JSC) since June 2021. Previously, she served as deputy director of JSC since August 2018. As a lead engineer, she assisted the JSC leadership team with policy development, staff relations, strategic planning, and management integration of technical, mission support and communications activities.

Early life and education

Wyche became interested in science at an early age and had parents who supported her interests in science. She grew up in Conway, South Carolina. When she was a junior in

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, she attended the Governor's School for top students. In 1981, she started attending

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

. Wyche holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Materials Engineering and a Master’s of Science in Bioengineering from Clemson.

Career

Wyche began her career at the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

. Her career with NASA began in 1989. 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 The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. She has led a team of 400 engineers and scientists that are working on how to send human explorers to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. 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. The Johnson Space Center is home to America's astronaut corps, Mission Control Center, International Space Station mission operations, Orion and Gateway programs, and future space developments. Wyche is responsible for a range of human spaceflight activities, which includes development of human spacecraft, NASA astronaut selection and training, and mission control. She oversees commercialization of low-Earth orbit, and leads the Johnson Space Center's role in exploring the Moon and Mars with NASA's Artemis spacecraft. With Wyche serving as the director for Johnson Space Center, Johnson was recognized by Forbes and Statista as the Number 1 best employer among Texas' major employers.

Awards and recognition

Wyche has received the following awards: *

NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal The NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal is awarded to US government employees only for notably outstanding leadership which affects technical or administrative programs of NASA. The leadership award may be given for an act of leadership, for sustain ...

* Two NASA Achievement Medals * Rotary Stellar Nomination * Women@NASA Awardee (2014) *“Women Worth Watching” honoree (2016) *Inducted into Thomas Green Clemson Academy of Engineers and Scientists at

(2019)

Personal life

Wyche is married to George Wyche Jr. Esq., has one son, and currently lives in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

References

External links

60 Seconds With a NASA Bioengineer: Vanessa Wyche
(2016 video)
Coastal Carolina University
2017 Inspiring Woman From South Carolina * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyche, Vanessa E. People from Conway, South Carolina NASA people Clemson University alumni Engineers from Houston African-American women engineers American women engineers African-American engineers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century women engineers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women