<p>Ginger Kerrick is Chief Strategy Officer for Barrios Technology, a small woman-owned human spaceflight company in Houston, Texas. </p><p>Prior to joining the Barrios executive team, Ginger served in multiple senior leadership roles at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) before retiring in 2021 including Deputy Director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate and JSC Assistant Center Director for Vision and Strategy. She spent the majority of her 30-year NASA career supporting JSC’s Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) in leadership roles, including Assistant Director for International Space Station (ISS), Flight Integration Division Chief, and Flight Director (the first female Hispanic Flight Director). Early in her career she was NASA’s first Russian Training Integration Instructor as well as being selected as the first non-astronaut Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM).</p><p>Ginger received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1991 and a Master of Science in physics in 1993 from Texas Tech University. She was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2016 by Governor Abbott. In 2019, she was appointed by Governor Abbott to the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System. She served as the Vice Chair of the board and Chairwoman of the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee.</p><p>Ginger was born in El Paso, Texas. Ginger and her husband, Sam Davis, were married in March 2021. In her personal time, Ginger is an avid runner, decorates cakes, and supports several Houston area dog rescues. Ginger was profiled in the Universal Pictures documentary <em>The Wonderful: Stories from the International Space Station</em> (2021) and in the books <em>A Galaxy of Her Own: Amazing Stories of Women in Space </em>(2017) and <em>Making Space for Women: Stories from Trailblazing Women of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (</em>2021). She also plays a role in the documentary M<em>ission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo (</em>2017) and in the short film <em>Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10</em> (2019) with Ron Howard and Jeff Goldblum.</p>
First Latina director of NASA Mission Control and 30-year veteran of the Johnson Space Center; Chief Strategy Officer of Barrios Technology; STEM ambassador
<ul><li><strong>Leadership Lessons from Mission Control</strong></li><li>For almost 60 years, NASA’s Mission Control has been pulling off miracles on a regular basis. Ginger Kerrick gives audiences an insider’s look at the values and culture behind NASA’s ability to stay resilient, innovate and keep America’s astronauts safe.</li><li>With vivid stories from her own years at the helm of Mission Control, Kerrick celebrates the toughness and vigilance of her teams and offers lessons from her own evolution as a leader. Most importantly, she walks audiences through the wave of revitalization in the ranks of NASA leadership responsible for the successes of the past few decades — from the International Space Station to the SpaceX Crew Dragon and NASA’s return to the Moon with the Artemis program — showing leaders how they can leverage the Mission Control model in their own organizations to chart a course for growth, resilience, innovation and excellence, even in today’s rapidly-changing world. </li><li><strong>Life is Hard: Woman Up!</strong></li><li>Growing up in El Paso, Texas in the 1980’s, Ginger Kerrick wanted to be an astronaut. Despite sometimes overwhelming odds, she pursued her degree in physics and blazed her own trail to NASA. At the age of 26, she was finally invited to interview for the astronaut program—only to discover that kidney stones meant a lifetime disqualification. </li><li>Rather than embrace a mantra of victimhood, blame, or insecurity, Ginger Kerrick has embraced a “Woman Up” strategy of resilience throughout her life, meeting personal and professional challenges head-on. In this keynote, Kerrick shares stories of the challenges she has faced, including watching her father die at the age of 11, overcoming adversity as a woman in STEM, and the medical disqualification holding her back from her lifelong dream.</li><li>Using vivid examples of how her “Tough and Competent” approach to life has led to her success—including her history-making career as the first-ever Latina to lead NASA Mission Control as Flight Director—Kerrick provides strategies for organizations and individuals to turn obstacles into opportunities and to make their own “impossible” possible.</li></ul><p><br></p>