W. Russ DeLoach

CHIEF, SAFETY AND MISSION ASSURANCE

William Russ DeLoach is NASA's chief of Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA). Appointed to this role in January 2021, DeLoach is responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of SMA policies and procedures for all NASA programs.

Prior to this assignment, DeLoach served as the SMA director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he led a dedicated team of experts in assuring workforce safety and collaborating on smart solutions to human spaceflight risks since February 2019. His team worked to identify, characterize, mitigate and communicate risk to accomplish safe and successful human space exploration.

He previously held the same role at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he was responsible for the planning and execution of center and program activities. In this capacity, he developed transformative SMA approaches to enable the success of Kennedy as the world’s premier multi-use spaceport.

DeLoach began his NASA career in 1987, on assignment as an intern in the Army Material Command’s Quality and Reliability Engineering training program. Returning to Kennedy, he conducted Reliability and System Safety analyses, as well as technical reviews and assessments of integrated ground systems, equipment, and operations for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. In 2000, he was selected as the SMA branch chief within the Shuttle Processing Directorate, providing surveillance of space shuttle ground operations. 

As his career progressed, he served as the shuttle processing mission assurance manager supporting ground processing, launch and landing.  In 2006, DeLoach stood up the SMA Support Office for the emerging Constellation Program and later oversaw the transition of Constellation efforts to support Orion and the Space Launch System. After the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, he was instrumental in the transformation of Kennedy to a thriving multiuser spaceport, developing an approach to enable public-private partnerships in a manner that maintains an acceptable risk posture for NASA, while allowing flexibility and innovation for commercial interests. He became Kennedy’s deputy director of SMA in 2012 and then SMA director in 2014. 

DeLoach holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is married to Janice, a retired educator, and they have three grown children.

Deirdre Healey

Missions and Programs Assessment Division Director

Deirdre Healey is the director of the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) Missions and Programs Assessment Division at NASA Headquarters. In this position, she leads Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) activities in support of NASA's spacecraft (including the International Space Station and space hardware developed for exploration programs and commercial space activities), science payloads, expendable launch vehicles and aeronautics programs. In addition, she provides OSMA’s primary interface with the NASA mission directorates, the Office of the Chief Technologist and the center SMA organizations.

Previously, Healey supported SMA activities for the Human Exploration and Operations Exploration Systems Directorate where she led efforts to incorporate SMA policies and tenets into the agency’s various human space flight programs including Orion, the Space Launch System and the new Commercial Crew Program.

Healey has more than 26 years of experience in space systems SMA, program management, engineering, operations and policy. Prior to joining NASA, she led development and operations of national and international space systems in the U.S. Air Force. She held various roles including program manager for the Inertial Upper Stage Rocket Booster Program, director of Titan Program Operations and Integration, deputy program manager for Launch Projects at Cape Canaveral Air Station, chief of the International Policy Branch for United States Strategic Command, and technical director for requirements at the Air Force Satellite Control Network. In addition, she served on various Mishap Investigation Boards including the president-commissioned Launch Broad Area Review and the Titan IVA-20 Accident Investigation Board.

Healey has a master's degree in government from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois.

Frank J. Groen

Deputy Chief, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance 

Dr. Frank J. Groen is the deputy chief of NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA). In this position, he is responsible for executive leadership, policy direction, functional management and coordination for agency-wide program and institutional Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) activities.

Prior to be appointed to this position, Groen was the director of the Safety and Assurance Requirements Division within OSMA, responsible for the development and maintenance of NASA directives and standards pertaining to SMA, as well as related methods, tools and guidance.

Groen worked in OSMA as the manager for Reliability and Maintainability (R&M), and also served as the document manager for NASA’s Human Rating Directive and program executive for NASA’s Expendable Launch Vehicle Payload Safety Program. During this period, he introduced the safety goal policy for human spaceflight missions to the Human-Rating Directive, oversaw the development of an accident precursor analysis methodology for NASA and initiated an objectives-driven approach for the standardization of R&M activities.

Before joining NASA, Groen was active in academia and industry, where he focused on method and tool development in the field of reliability and risk assessment, with a focus on Bayesian data analysis, accident scenario modeling and analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland in 2000 and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Terrence W. Wilcutt

CHIEF, SAFETY AND MISSION ASSURANCE

Terrence W. Wilcutt is NASA's chief of Safety and Mission Assurance. Appointed to this role in September 2011, Wilcutt is responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of all Safety and Mission Assurance policies and procedures for all NASA programs.

Wilcutt is a retired Marine colonel and veteran astronaut who previously served as director of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA's Johnson Space Center from 2008 to 2011. In that position, Wilcutt was tasked with the Safety Technical Authority of the programs and projects at Johnson, as well as the center's Institutional Safety program.

Wilcutt joined NASA in 1990 as an astronaut candidate and was accepted into the corps in 1991. He logged more than 1,007 hours in space as the pilot on two shuttle missions, STS-68 in 1994 and STS-79 in 1996, and commander of two others, STS-89 in 1998 and STS-106 in 2000. His technical assignments as an astronaut included work on space shuttle main engine and external tank issues; supporting shuttle launches and landings as a member of the astronaut support personnel team at Kennedy Space Center; and technical issues for the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch at Johnson.

Wilcutt also served as NASA director of operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia; and at Johnson as chief of the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations Branch, manager of Safety and Mission Assurance for the Space Shuttle Program, and deputy director of Safety and Mission Assurance.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Wilcutt earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in math from Western Kentucky University in 1974. He taught high school math for two years before entering the Marine Corps in 1976 and earned his naval aviator wings in 1978.

From 1980 until 1983, he was stationed in Kaneohe, Hawaii, and flew F-4 Phantoms during two overseas deployments to Japan, Korea and the Philippines. For the next three years, he served as an F/A-18 fighter weapons and air combat maneuvering instructor while assigned to Squadron VFA-125 at Lemoore Naval Air Station in California. From 1986 until his selection by NASA, Wilcutt attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School and served as a test pilot and project officer for the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate of the Naval Aircraft Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, flying the F/A-18 Hornet, the A-7 Corsair II, the F-4 Phantom and other aircraft. He has more than 6,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.

Wilcutt has received numerous special honors, including NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Exceptional Service Medal and four space flight medals; the Distinguished Flying Cross; the Defense Superior Service and Meritorious Service medals; and the Navy Commendation Medal. He also has received the American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award; the V.M. Komarov Diploma, Federation Aeronautique Internationale space award for outstanding achievements in space exploration; and distinguished alumnus recognition and an honorary doctorate degree from Western Kentucky University.

Wilcutt maintains offices in Houston and Washington.