Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg is the Director at Texas A&M University’s Space Institute, a unique collaboration facility featuring the world’s largest indoor lunar and Mars ‘scapes. Through her appointment to the Texas Space Commission, she contributes to initiatives to promote growth in all sectors of the Texas space economy. As the Don Lummus ‘58 Professor of Practice in Engineering, she holds appointments in the Industrial and Systems Engineering and Aerospace Engineering departments. Her research activities focus on optimizing human performance and safety in aerospace systems.

Before joining Texas A&M University, Dr. Currie-Gregg dedicated the majority of her career to supporting NASA’s human spaceflight programs and projects. Selected as an astronaut in 1990, she logged 1,000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions. Following the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2002, she led the Space Shuttle Program Safety and Mission Assurance Office, directing safety, reliability, and quality assurance efforts to enable the safe return to flight of the Space Shuttle. She also served as a senior executive member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, where she spent more than a decade as a Principal Engineer and Chief Engineer at the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Currie-Gregg earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from The Ohio State University, a Master of Science degree in Safety Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston. A retired U.S. Army Colonel and Master Army Aviator, she has accumulated over 4,000 flight hours in rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.