Debra Berdich

Debra Berdich is the Deputy Manager of the Health Medical Technical Authority within the NASA Headquarters Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) and the Deputy Chief Health and Performance Officer (CHPO) for Human Exploration and Operations. Her responsibilities include organizational leadership to the HMTA across centers and programs, including resource planning and management, coordinating staffing and assignments across NASA field centers, coordination with internal and external stakeholders, assessing and reporting on organization performance and plan, and maintaining executive support for and communication around the human system via data gathering and guidance in decision-making, as well as integrating agency technical assessments, in support of NASA’s Agency goals and missions.  

Prior to this role, she held assignments of increasing responsibility, including Crew Health Care System (CHeCS) Lead for the International Space Station (ISS); Systems Engineer for the Life Support & Habitation (LSH) Program, precursor to the Human Research Program; Deputy for CHeCS Countermeasures System in Engineering;  lead for the Crew Capabilities Interface Requirements in Orion; co-lead of the Human System Integration  (HSI) Group in Constellation; and NASA’s first HSI Lead and interface to the Department of Defense (DoD).  She was the HMTA delegate and CHPO for the Commercial Crew Program and the Human Lander System Program and served on acquisition strategy teams and source evaluation boards for both programs. 

She is the recipient of two Agency Outstanding Leadership awards, two Agency Exceptional Service Medals, several Superior Accomplishment awards, a Spaceflight Awareness Award, an Agency Acquisition Improvement award, and several individual and group achievement awards for contributions to human spaceflight.