<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 over 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, Ginger 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’s Lessons in Resilience</strong></li><li>Ginger Kerrick’s life is a masterclass in grit, determination, and overcoming both personal and professional challenges. Long before she became a trailblazer at NASA, Ginger learned what it meant to endure the unimaginable. At just eleven years old, she witnessed her father’s sudden death – an experience that could have shattered her future but instead forged a foundation of strength.</li><li>That strength would be tested throughout her academic career, struggles getting her first job at NASA, navigating the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, and again when, after reaching the final stages of astronaut candidacy, Ginger’s dreams of becoming an astronaut were crushed due to the unexpected discovery of kidney stones.</li><li>Using vivid examples of how her “Tough and Competent” approach to life has led to a tremendously successful career at NASA, including many NASA “firsts”, Ginger provides strategies for organizations and individuals to turn obstacles into opportunities and to make their own “impossible” possible.</li></ul>