Ginger Kerrick Davis
VICE CHAIRWOMAN
Mrs. Ginger Kerrick Davis 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 was named vice chairwoman of the board on Nov. 17, 2022, where she was nominated and affirmed by a unanimous vote by the board. She currently serves as the chairwoman of the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee. She also is a member of the Regents’ Rules Review Committee. Her term expires on Jan. 31, 2025.
She has previously served the board as a member of the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee.
Kerrick Davis is the chief strategy officer for Barrios Technology, Ltd.
She served in numerous leadership roles for NASA, including flight operations assistant director for the International Space Station (ISS), flight integration division chief and deputy director of the exploration integration and science directorate. She retired from NASA in September 2021 after 30 years of service.
Kerrick Davis became the first female Hispanic flight director in the history of NASA in 2005. 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. She served as NASA’s first Russian Training Integration instructor in 1997, providing support to the first crew that would live onboard the ISS.
She began working for NASA as a summer intern in 1991 for Johnson Space Center and started her first permanent assignment in May 1994 as a materials research engineer. In 1995, she was reassigned to the Mission Operations Directorate as an instructor for the ISS Environmental and Life Support System, training both astronauts and flight controllers.
Kerrick Davis 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 Davis 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 Davis 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 Davis taught in the STEM Master of Business Administration program at Texas Tech University’s Rawls College of Business Administration.
Kerrick Davis and her husband, Samuel Davis, were married in March 2021. Kerrick Davis 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.