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Dr. Gena Humphrey Henderson
Chief, Engineering Support Services Branch
Engineering Directorate
Gena Humphrey Henderson, Ph.D., serves as chief of the Engineering Support Services Branch within the Engineering Directorate at John F. Kennedy Space Center. This office is responsible for generation and management of business processes and documentation; generation and management of business metrics; records management; management of design and development technical reviews; export control; management of business reviews; management of office, laboratory and shop space database; knowledge management; management of the Kennedy Engineering Academy; and management of the Agency Lessons Learned program as a delegated function from the NASA Headquarters Office of Chief Engineer.
Prior to this position, Dr. Henderson progressed through several leadership positions at the John F. Kennedy Space Center. She served as program manager for the agency Lessons Learned program, mechanical engineer for the Payloads Processing Directorate, quality engineer for the Solid Rocket Booster element of the Space Shuttle Ground Processing Directorate, reliability engineer for the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate, process engineer for the Independent Technical Authority Office, and human factors engineer for the Systems Management Office.
With over 16 years of experience in ground processing and launch of space flight systems, Dr. Henderson has served in a leadership capacity on numerous teams and received several awards including exceptional service medal, certificates of commendation and appreciation, and group achievement. In 1995, she was nominated as the Florida Space Coast's Outstanding Woman Engineer of the Year. In 1997, she was recognized as an Outstanding Young Woman of America. In 1998, she was awarded the James Webb Fellowship from the National Space Act which assisted her in finishing her dissertation research, "Reliability of Space Systems: A Multi-Element Integrated Approach" at the University of Central Florida. In July 2002, Dr. Henderson received national recognition for the Women of Color in Government and Defense Technology All-Star Award. In January 2006, she was invited to serve on the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium Management Committee, and in February 2008, she served as session chair for the Leading Edges Track at the Project Management Challenge 2008 Conference, NASA's premiere forum for discussion of current trends in program and project management. In May 2008, Dr. Henderson received a NASA Exceptional Service Medal for outstanding leadership in directing, planning, developing, and managing implementation of the agency’s Lessons Learned Process across all ten NASA Centers.
Dr. Henderson graduated from Florida State University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics. In 1992, she graduated from Florida A & M University with a Master of Science in mechanical engineering and became the first African-American student to receive a engineering master in the history of FAMU/FSU College of Engineering. In December 2000, she graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Doctor of Philosophy in industrial engineering. For this, she has the distinction of being the first female African-American to receive a Doctorate of Philosophy in an engineering discipline from the University of Central Florida. Her research includes the topics of computational fluid dynamics in three dimensional flow and hardware, software and human reliability and human factors. Her education was funded with several scholarships such as the Lockwood Brown scholarship, Naval Oceanographic Scholarship, FAMU Presidential Scholarship, NASA Langley Aerospace Researchers Summer Scholarship, Delores Auzenne Fellowship, and James Webb Fellowship. She is a talented public speaker and has authored several published articles. She has also developed many industrial engineering improvement practices that have been implemented at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
Dr. Henderson is a Florida native and resides in Sanford, Fla., with her husband, Roderick, and their three children: Zahir, Princess and Zuri.January 2009
Biographies - Current Employees