Sessions
"An Evening with the Stars" Reception
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Wed
2021 Engaged Scholarship Symposium Panel Session # 2: "Space, the Next Frontier?"
10:15 AM - 11:30 AM Thu
Ms. Ginger Kerrick of Webster, Texas, was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System on March 6, 2019. She currently serves as a member on the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee and the Audit Committee. Her term expires on Jan. 31, 2025.
Kerrick is the Flight Integration Division Chief for NASA, Johnson Space Center.
She began working for NASA as a summer intern in 1991 and started her first permanent assignment as Johnson Space Center in May of 1994 as a Materials Research Engineer. In 1995, she was reassigned to the Mission Operations Directorate as an instructor for the International Space Station (ISS) Environmental and Life Support System. Her responsibilities include training development, simulator development and training conduct for both crew and flight controllers.
Kerrick served as NASA’s first Russian Training Integration instructor in 1997 providing support to the first crew that would live onboard on the ISS. In 2001 she was selected as the first non-astronaut Capcom (short for Capsule Communicator), the person in Mission Control that speaks to the on-orbit crew. Later, in February of 2005, she was selected as a Flight Director. This selection made her the first female Hispanic Flight Director in the history of NASA.
She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers, volunteer coordinator for Triumphant Tails, Inc. and serves as the emcee for the annual Galveston Polar Plunge benefitting Special Olympics.
Kerrick was recognized by the Texas Governor’s Commission for Women for her outstanding leadership and dedicated service to the nation’s space program, as well as her commitment to inspire others through giving back to her community.
In 2016, Kerrick was one of five women named to the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. She was named a distinguished alumna by Texas Tech University in 2004, and she also was recognized as a distinguished alumna in 2012 by the Texas Tech Alumni Association.
Kerrick was a two-year member (2014-15) of the Board of Directors for the Texas Tech Alumni Association serving on the Scholarship, Chapter Development and Academic Recruitment Committees. In 2015, Kerrick taught in the STEM Master of Business Administration program at Texas Tech University’s Rawls College of Business Administration.
Kerrick received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1991 and a Master of Science in physics in 1993 from Texas Tech University. She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas.