Executive Moves

JSC Deputy Director Vanessa E. Wyche
Wyche
Vanessa Wyche, deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
Credits: NASA
Vanessa E. Wyche is deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), a position she assumed on Aug. 8, 2018. In this role, Wyche assists in leading an organization of nearly 10,000 civil service and contractor employees in Houston – including those at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico – and also assists with a broad range of human spaceflight activities.
Prior to her position as deputy director, Wyche served as the director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate at JSC where she provided executive guidance and direction of a multi-disciplined organization to enable human and robotic exploration of deep space.

Wyche previously served as acting deputy director of JSC from September 2017 to February 2018.

Before joining JSC in 1989, she worked for the Food and Drug Administration in Washington D.C. Over the span of her career with NASA, she has held several key leadership positions; in the Space Shuttle Program, as a flight manager, in the Constellation Program as director of Operations and Test Integration, as acting director for the Human Exploration Development Support Directorate, as associate director of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate and assistant center director at JSC.

A strong supporter of Innovation and Inclusion (I&I) at JSC, Wyche has served as a member of JSC’s I&I Council and co-executive sponsor of “Emerge,” an employee resource group for early career employees. She advocates mentoring and is a passionate promoter of science, technology, engineer and math (STEM) in her community, leading efforts to oversee an annual science fair at an underserved elementary school and supporting numerous STEM-outreach activities via her affiliations with The Links, Incorporated, Boy Scouts of America and Jack and Jill of America.

She has received numerous honors, notably, two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, two NASA Achievement Medals, a JSC Innovation Award, 2014 Women at NASA awardee, a national “2016 Women Worth Watching” honoree by Profiles in Diversity Journal, and recognized as a 2017 “Inspiring Woman from South Carolina” by Women in Philanthropy and Leadership at Coastal Carolina University.

A South Carolina native, Wyche graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Science in Bioengineering. She resides in Houston, Texas, with her husband George Wyche Jr., Esquire, and they are the proud parents of one son George Wyche III, a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in Psychology.




NASA Names Vanessa Wyche New Johnson Space Center Deputy Director
Monica Jackson August 9, 2018 Executive Moves, News 32 Views


Vanessa Wyche
Vanessa Wyche, former director of the exploration integration and science directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, has been appointed as the new deputy director of the installation.

NASA said Wednesday Wyche will assist JSC Director Mark Geyer in managing the center, which is responsible for 10,000 civil service and contractor employees and various human spaceflight operations.

“[She] has built agency-wide relationships throughout her nearly three-decade career and will serve JSC well as we continue to lead human space exploration in Houston,” Geyer stated.

As EISD director, Wyche led several human and robotic efforts to explore deep space.

She also previously held other leadership roles within NASA such as acting deputy director of JSC, flight manager in the Space Shuttle program and acting director for the agency’s human exploration development support directorate.

The NASA veteran also worked at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C., prior to joining JSC in 1989.

Wyche holds a bachelor’s degree in materials engineering and a master of science degree in bioengineering from Clemson University.